
That's all for today, FanBoy out!
Warning!!! A FanBoy's Technical (and non Technical) WebSite. Geared for enthusiasts and noobies, experts excluded but can be included too!
Dear 680i Users,
Some users have reported they are encountering obstacles in over-clocking Intel Quad Core CPUs in excess of 1300MHz FSB on the EVGA nForce 680i SLI platform.
If you have an Intel Quad Core CPU and are experiencing this issue, EVGA will swap your original unit for a motherboard that improves your Intel Quad Core over-clocking.
U.S. - EVGA advanced RMA service will replace the board
Canada - EVGA will replace the board in a normal RMA process
Europe - EVGA will replace the board in a normal RMA process
If you are interested in receiving a replacement, please be sure your product is registered on our site at http://evga.com/register/. After registering, please visit http://evga.com/support/680i_fsb.asp and enter your serial number and stay tuned for an update on when to RMA your board in early March via email.
Note: This offer is only applicable for the Intel Quad Core issue listed above.
Thank you,
EVGA Management Team
The Motherboard with Powerful Graphical and CPU Options for SOHO or Power Users
ASUS P5NT WS Motherboard Supports New PCI-X Structure for Faster Desktop Speeds While Retaining Backward Compatibility
Taipei, Taiwan, February 12, 2007 – The ASUS P5NT WS is built on the NVIDIAC55+MCP55PXE chipset structure which supports a LGA775 Socket for running Intel Dual-core™/Quad-core™ CPUs and two NVIDIA SLI graphic cards with Dual x16 speeds on the same platform. This allows the user to enjoy the best CPU and graphics for the system build. With the addition of the PCI-X interface, the P5NT WS motherboard provides much more options in I/O configurations for SOHOs and power users to custom-build their ideal working or entertainment environment.
High Quality Solid Aluminum Capacitors
The ASUS P5NT WS motherboard is fitted with solid Aluminum capacitors and a conductive polymer to help secure perfect system stability. These high quality materials also help ensure that the motherboard will have a longer product life time.
New PCI-X Structure for More Efficiency
The PCI-X Structure of the P5NT WS motherboard is a newer, higher speed version of the conventional PCI standard. It is also fully hardware and software backward compatible to previous generations of PCI. These new standards keep pace with upcoming advances in high-bandwidth business-critical applications such as Fibre Channel, RAID, networking, InfiniBand™ Architecture, SCSI, and iSCSI.
Effective Heat-pipe Thermal Solution
The innovative Heat-pipe Thermal design of the P5NT WS motherboard effectively directs the heat generated by the chipsets to the heatsink near the back IO ports – where it can be dissipated by existing airflow from the CPU fan or optional fans. This unique Heat-pipe design highlights how fanless designs effectively curb the problem of chipset fans breaking down. Furthermore, it provides options for users to install a side-flow fan or a passive cooler. The Heat-pipe design is the most reliable fanless thermal solution to date.
Cool and Quiet 8-Phase Power Design
The P5NT WS also encompasses an 8-Phase Power Design that reduces input ripple current and output ripple voltages – keeping the CPU and power modules from the risk of high power stress. It also provides reliability under heavy-loading and overclocking by stabilizing output current and voltages. All this effectively lets components attain longer lifespans and allows them to operate at 15°C (36°F) lower than conventional solutions – resulting in lower fan speeds for quieter operation.
ASUS AI Clock Skew – Reliable Overclocking
This helpful feature automatically skews the memory clock signal timing to improve memory overclocking capabilities by 10 to 15%. The clock signal can be adjusted to reserve enough Setup time / Hold time in order to maintain the system's stability.
Balance Performance and Quietness with AI Gear
ASUS's AI Gear allows users to choose from profiles to adjust the CPU frequency and voltage. This allows a balance for both system performance and quietness. Having two modes: High Performance for running heavy loading applications and Max Power Saving for minimizing system noise and power consumption; AI Gear provides Real-time adjustments under the OS to suit varying needs.
AI Nap – Powersaving and Noise Reducing
With AI Nap, users can instantly snooze the PC without terminating any tasks. The system will continue operating at minimum power and noise till reawakened.
Files will continue to download and applications will be run in the quietest state while the system is in AI Nap mode. The system will swiftly wake up in a matter of seconds with a simple click of the keyboard of mouse.
Specification summary
- LGA775 Socket
- NVIDIA Dual SLI x 16 Chipset (C55+MCP55PXE)
- Front Side Bus 1333/800/533 MHz
- DDR2 800/667/533
- 3 x PCIe x 16 (supports NVIDIA SLI™ technology)
- 1 x PCI-X
- 2 x PCIe X1
- 1 x PCI 2.2
- 2 x Gb LAN
- RealTek ALC888 8-CH HD Audio
Subject: fudo
This is NOT a flame.
Good luck to you Fuad. Sincerely. I believe this is my second letter to Inq ever, and I believe this warrants it. I've read the Inq ALOT over the years, and while not everything is 100 percent accurate, it is the first thing i look at when i pop onto the web. I could never understand the utter lack of dignity some people have in regards to Fuad. If it weren't for people like him that push the envelope of news and such, the web would be a pretty boring place, for me at least.
I really don't know how he handles all the critisism he recieves, but i have huge respect for him for being able to do so. In fact, if he does have some involvement in RyderMark, i will purchase it for that reason alone, to show my support. And i've already bookmarked his new website. I hope everyone at the Inq appreciates what he's done.
And I have no doubt that there are companies out there that USE Fuad to spread dissinformation and lies, in the interest of distancing themselves from said lies. The people that use the Inq as pawns are the ones that should be chastised and punished, not the other way around. It sickens me and it has for a long time. I'm sure there are many reporters for the Inq that get used in that way. In any event, I really do wish Fuad the best of luck. So many people bash him, it makes me very VERY angry. So this is my only way to show some appreciation, and i'm sure others feel similarily.
Again, good luck Fuad.
waffles
The Second Dual-Core Wave Arrives with Maximum Form Factor Power
Eching / Nuremberg, February 13, 2007 – Timed to launch with the Intel® Embedded Roadmap, Kontron debuted its latest wave of technology for Intel® Core™2 Duo processors. With an impressive nine different embedded platforms available between now and the end of the first quarter, Kontron will offer the latest board technology across a variety of form factors with Intel’s new multi-core architecture.
The new Intel® Core™2 Duo micro-architecture is designed to deliver increased performance and better performance-per-watt thus increasing overall energy efficiency, making it one of the most important embedded processors for 2007. The product portfolio ranges from computer-on-modules ETX® 3.0 and ETXexpress®/COM Express, four embedded motherboards including Mini-ITX, Flex-ATX and ATX in two versions, up to SBCs for PICMG 1.3, 3U CompactPCI, 6U CompactPCI and last not least AdvancedMC. Kontron is the world’s only vendor of embedded computer technology with such a complete product range of all relevant embedded form factors, so large OEMs that require different form factors for different applications within their company can get them all from a single vendor – reducing their overall cost and increasing their current and future flexibility significantly.
The Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7x00 is one of the latest members of Intel’s “performance” product line of multi-core processors based on the new Intel® Core™ micro-architecture. Users that are already using or plan to use existing platforms from Kontron based on the Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2400/T2500 will have a seamless performance boost by moving to the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T7400 which offers 4MB, twice as much L2 cache – which can be dynamically assigned to each of the cores, as well as a 64-bit architecture.
The power consumption of the new processors is only slightly higher than the Intel Core Duo processors due to new features like “enhanced speedstep” and “dynamic bus parking”. Customers will also have available to them system-enhancing technologies in these new processor/chipset platforms such as Intel® Virtualization Technology and Intel® Advanced Management Technology (Intel® AMT). The Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T7400, with a thermal design power of 34 watts, is ideal for communications and embedded designs requiring a low thermal envelope. Kontron’s choice of the T7x00 for future designs in a variety of form factors shows the versatility and flexibility of our latest energy-efficient processors.
Sunnyvale, CA—February 21, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today unveiled the OCZ PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Series. This 2GB dual channel kit features the proprietary OCZ Reaper HPC (Heat Pipe Conduit) heatspreader, engineered to deliver superior silent heat dissipation over traditional heatspreaders.
The Reaper HPC is an innovative cooling solution developed by OCZ to effectively minimize heat produced by high-speed memory. As heat rises into the thermo-conductive copper heat pipe conduit, it is dissipated through the strategically-placed compact aluminum fin array. By guiding performance-robbing heat away from key memory components, the unique Reaper HPC design helps facilitate improved overclocking performance, while improving longevity and stability of the modules.
“Overclocking and efficient cooling do not have to be noisy. The Reaper HPC series integrates silent heat pipe technology into a premium memory product line to assure perfect thermal management of the latest generation of OCZ high-speed DDR2 modules,” commented Dr. Michael Schuette, VP of Technology Development at OCZ Technology. ”Any noise-conscious end user relying on silent passive cooling while demanding the highest performance will embrace the quality balance of features and innovative design found in the new Reaper HPC series.”
The first modules to be incorporated with the new Reaper heatsink are rated at 1066MHz and run at CL 5-5-5. Featuring an EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) programmed SPD, PC2-8500 Reaper HPC modules will immediately boot at the rated specs on the latest generation of NVIDIA® SLI™ chipsets. Although the OCZ Reaper HPC series was coined for enthusiasts, EPP eliminates the need for manual configuration and makes memory optimizations a household item for the complete range of consumers looking to maximize system performance through overclocking.
The PC2-8500 Reaper HPC series will be available in 2GB (2x1024MB) dual channel kits. As part of OCZ’s line-up of premium memory, PC2-8500 modules are backed by a Lifetime Warranty and industry-leading technical support.
For more information on the OCZ PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Series, please visit our product page here.
Sunnyvale, CA—February 20, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the OCZ Vindicator CPU cooler, an enthusiast-grade thermal solution for the latest high performance processors. The Vindicator can be used as a passive or active cooler depending on the needs of the enthusiast.
The OCZ Vindicator can effectively cool some CPUs passively thanks to a pure copper base plate and six copper heat pipe design that rapidly transfers heat away from the processor up to the dense, high-stacked fin array where the thermal load is quickly dissipated. In fanless mode, the Vindicator efficiently, yet silently offloads heat. For extreme overclocking, enthusiasts can simply attach the included 120mm fan on any of the four sides of the Vindicator to aggressively cool the CPU.
“We are excited to expand our thermal solutions with the introduction of a CPU cooler designed specifically for hardcore gamers and enthusiasts,” said Jacky Huang, VP of Product Management, OCZ Technology. “The Vindicator’s six copper heatpipes and high-stacked fin array push the envelope when it comes to superior cooling while overclocking, and give enthusiasts increased flexibility with the passive or active fan configuration.”
The versatile OCZ Vindicator CPU cooler is compatible with sockets AMD 754/939/AM2 and Intel 775. Because no motherboard back plate is required, the hassle-free Vindicator is installed quickly and easily. With no need to remove your motherboard to install the cooler, the OCZ Vindicator will have your CPU cooled in no time.
Light-weight and quiet, the OCZ Vindicator manages to provide superior and reliable cooling thanks to a unique and state-of-the-art design for enthusiasts looking to upgrade their generic or inadequate coolers.
For more information on the OCZ Vindicator, please visit our product page here.
Aaaaannnndddd the winners are:
deathmetal
Martijn
Winners please pm your info to FUGGER so he can get your prizes shipped out..
Ultimately, the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ isn't fast enough to wrestle the performance crown from Intel's high-end Core 2 Duo processors, but it does push AMD's performance up a rung on the ladder. At this point it's clear that it's going to take much higher frequencies, or rather a new architecture for AMD to overtake Intel again. But for now, another round of price cuts will put AMD on somewhat equal footing in terms of overall value.
Frankly speaking the launch of the new AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor is not a very big event. Until promising new cores based on K8L micro-architecture come out, AMD will hardly be able to surprise us with anything. After the launch of Intel Core 2 Duo processor family, AMD K8 micro-architecture turned pretty obsolete. While in the budget and mainstream market AMD manages to success just fine thanks to smart and aggressive pricing policy, then the high-performance segment seems to be a tough nut to crack for AMD at this time.
Conclusion
Thermaltake has come up with an exceptionally practical and stylish case with their LANBOX. Accepting MicroATX mainboards in a package just a hair larger than a MiniITX based SFF rig is a nice accomplishment. Under power, the loudest thing in the case was the Northbridge cooler which easily overpowered the low volume of the 90mm and two 60mm included fans. Thermaltake's Key 3 Spirit seems to be well defined here but sold short. I believe aesthetics are every bit as important as Tt's other "three keys" and the Tt LANBOX has that one nailed in a highly portable package with clean lines and a subtle elegant appeal. The only area of concern was that of height restrictions closing some cooling option choices. This is notable but not a huge deal because to alter the case design so that it could take the largest of coolers gets away from its primary focus of being a very compact LAN box. Thermaltake has put out a great case with the LANBOX which as soon as I finish writing this review, will be the new home to my personal LAN rig.
Windows Vista can be used for as long as 120 days without agreeing to its product activation antipiracy software, the company confirmed Friday. That's four times longer than the 30 days the company has widely used as the maximum time span the operating system can be used before it shuts down.
Several bloggers and Windows experts, including Brian Livingston, who publishes the Windows Secrets newsletter, have posted details on how to extend the 30-day grace period a maximum of three times, for 120 days. "All versions of Vista allow a 30-day period without activation, except the corporate-oriented Vista Enterprise, which supports only a three-day trial," said Livingston in the latest issue of his newsletter. "If you know the secret, however, you can extend the activation deadline of editions such as Vista Home Premium and Vista Business up to four months past the original install date."
The one-line command of "slmgr -rearm" changes the activation deadline to 30 after the current date, Livingston said.
A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed the feature and command on Friday. "Yes, 'rearm' can be run up to three times from the release media from Microsoft," she said in an e-mail response to some questions. "This means [that] a total of 120 days total time is available as a grace period to customers that take advantage of rearm."
Microsoft has documented this option on its Vista Volume Activation 2.0 support site. Although the bulk of the technical information posted is aimed at corporate administrators, the sections dealing with repeated activation also apply to consumer users of the operating system.
Extending the grace period, the spokeswoman continued, is not a violation of the Vista End User License Agreement (EULA). Microsoft introduced product activation in 2001's Office XP and next used it in that year's Windows XP. The feature was toughened up for Vista, however; after the grace periods, nonactivated PCs running Vista drop into what Microsoft calls "reduced functionality" mode. In reduced mode, users can only browse the Web with Internet Explorer, and then only for an hour before being forced to again log on.
Some critics have argued that the new activation rules and reduced functionality combine to make what's essentially a "kill switch" -- a way for Microsoft to disable PCs running counterfeit copies of Vista. Microsoft has repeatedly rejected that characterization.
Hello Guys,
i just got info from supertalent that DDR3 motherboard will start shipping in mid 2007, that DDR3 wont be pin compatible with DDR2.
Also they already have finished prototypes of DDR3 they are testing the in several mobos now.
All this info will be public tomorrow when ST releases their newsletter, if you want to sign up in supertalents newsletter, check their home page and you have to look at the right side
Conclusion
There is no absolute ideal, you can always find things that can be improved. However, Asus Commando mainboard seems to closer than anyone else to the “ideal mainboard’ title. Rich settings, high-quality design, outstanding functionality – all these parameters meet the highest criteria and give us every right to call this mainboard one of the best. There are a lot of good mainboards out there, but the remarkable thing about Asus Commando is that it is universal! Extreme overclocking fans will receive a lot of fine-tuning options, so that they could fight for each additional megahertz, for each timing. However, even commencing overclockers will be able to achieve impressive results in automatic mode.
It is hard for me to find drawbacks in Asus Commando mainboard. Maybe it could be the absence of the COM and LPT ports? Yes, it is drawback, but not a dramatic one for a contemporary mainboard. Then, maybe, it is high price? Of course, it should be high, but can we really say that this price is unjustified? So much effort and hard work has been put into this mainboard that it simply cannot be cheap. If price is a crucial factor for you, there is a plenty of other Asus mainboards or solutions from different makers that would be within your budget. Continuing our car analogies: can we say that McLaren F1 is a bad car because it is expensive? They no longer make these cars, it was and is nearly impossible to buy, it belongs to that type of vehicles that you can only dream of. But unlike McLaren F1, anyone can purchase an Asus Commando dream-board. All you need is desire and money.
In conclusion to our discussion of performance and features of the new ASUS Commando mainboard, we decided to award it with the prestigious Editor’s Choice Title as the Today’s Best Mainboard on Intel P965 Сhipset:
Intel announced that it will begin making 45 nanometer chips, code-named Penryn, in the second half of the year. The new microprocessors are the culmination of years of R&D using new materials to improve the efficiency and performance of silicon-based semiconductors.
The company says the new chip technology maintains Moore's Law, the observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in the late 1960s that the number of transistors doubles on chips every two years. Intel scientists say that transistors are now so small that more than 300 can fit on a human red blood cell.
In a recent earnings announcement, Intel officials said they expect to rebuild a lead in the computer chip market through innovation and manufacturing efficiency. Intel's current line of microprocessors includes the Core2Duo, Core2Extreme, and Core2Quad.
In this video podcast, PodTech's Jason Lopez visits Intel's Hillsboro, Oregon research facility and fab.
Related Stories: IntelMooresLaw
CPU-Z 1.39 is available. The news are :
Windows Vista 64 support.
VIA CX700/VX700 chipset.
Added Merom XE (X7900/X7800)
Added "PCI" and "MaxPCIBus" in the ini file to configure PCI scanning.
Added "-core" parameter to display the clock speed of the specified core.
Go to CPU-Z page for more information.
Download version 1.39.
CPU-Z forum.
There are so many CPU models that it has become quite impossible to keep up with the different models or even remember their specifications!
Therefore, we decided to compile this guide to provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications of the various desktop CPUs in the market, as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete.
Currently covering over 580 desktop CPUs, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare up to 18 different specifications for each and every CPU!
We hope it will prove to be a useful reference. We will keep this guide updated regularly so do check back for the latest updates!
Intel Research Chip Advances 'Era Of Tera'
80-Core Programmable Processor First to Deliver Teraflop Performance with Remarkable Energy-Efficiency
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 11, 2007 - Intel Corporation researchers have developed the world's first programmable processor that delivers supercomputer-like performance from a single, 80-core chip not much larger than the size of a finger nail while using less electricity than most of today's home appliances. This is the result of the company's innovative 'Tera-scale computing' research aimed at delivering Teraflop -- or trillions of calculations per second --performance for future PCs and servers. Technical details of the Teraflop research chip will be presented at the annual Integrated Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) this week in San Francisco.
Tera-scale performance, and the ability to move terabytes of data, will play a pivotal role in future computers with ubiquitous access to the Internet by powering new applications for education and collaboration, as well as enabling the rise of high-definition entertainment on PCs, servers and handheld devices. For example, artificial intelligence, instant video communications, photo-realistic games, multimedia data mining and real-time speech recognition - once deemed as science fiction in Star Trek shows - could become everyday realities.
Intel has no plans to bring this exact chip designed with floating point cores to market. However, the company's Tera-scale research is instrumental in investigating new innovations in individual or specialized processor or core functions, the types of chip-to-chip and chip-to-computer interconnects required to best move data and most importantly, how software will need to be designed to best leverage multiple processor cores. This Teraflop research chip offered specific insights in new silicon design methodologies, high-bandwidth interconnects and energy management approaches.
"Our researchers have achieved a wonderful and key milestone in terms of being able to drive multi-core and parallel computing performance forward," said Justin R. Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer. "It points the way to the near future when Teraflop-capable designs will be commonplace and will reshape what we can all expect from our computers and the Internet at home and in the office."
The first time Teraflop performance was achieved was in 1996, on the ASCI Red Supercomputer built by Intel for the Sandia National Laboratory. That computer took up more than 2000 square feet, was powered by nearly 10,000 Pentium® Pro processors, and consumed over 500 kilowatts of electricity. Intel's research chip achieves this same performance on a multi-core chip that could rest on the tip of a finger.
Also remarkable is that this 80-core research chip achieves a teraflop of performance while consuming only 62 watts - less than many single-core processors today.
The chip features an innovative tile design in which smaller cores are replicated as "tiles," making it easier to design a chip with many cores. With Intel's discovery of new and robust materials to build future transistors and no immediate end in sight for Moore's Law, this lays a path to manufacture multi-core processors with billions of transistors more efficiently in the future.
The Teraflop chip also features a mesh-like "network-on-a-chip" architecture allowing super high bandwidth communications between the cores, and capable of moving Terabits of data per second inside the chip. The research also investigated methods to power cores on and off independently, so only the ones needed to complete a task are used, providing more energy efficiency.
Further Tera-scale research will focus on the addition of 3-D stacked memory to the chip as well as developing more sophisticated research prototypes with many general-purpose Intel® Architecture-based cores. Today, the Intel® Tera-scale Computing Research Program has over 100 projects underway that explore other architectural, software and system design challenges.
Intel is presenting eight other papers at ISSCC, including one which will cover the Intel® CoreTM micro-architecture and its use in dual and quad core processors spanning laptops to desktop PCs and servers, using both 65nm and revolutionary 45nm process technologies. Other papers cover such topics as a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader transceiver chip, a low power cache for mobile applications, a reconfigurable Viterbi accelerator, as well as novel circuits for on-die supply resonance suppression, on-chip phase-noise measurement and adaptive techniques for variations and aging.
Click here to visit the Press Kit.
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.
The purpose of this article is to guide you through the myriad options for upgrading to Windows Vista. My goal here is balance: I will not slavishly regurgitate Microsoft's hype, but neither will I join the growing army of Microsoft bashers.
The choices for creating a Vista computer are bewildering. Since there are so many possibilities, let me start by offering you a default solution to the main question: "what should I do about Vista?" My default advice is that you wait until June 2007 - then buy a new machine with either Vista Home Premium or Vista Business pre-installed.
From that default position, I'll review the other options for Vista. My goal is to give you the information necessary to make the best decision for your particular circumstances.
EPoX Company used to be very popular for the overclocking friendly products. Unfortunately, the EPoX mainboard on Intel P965 chipset cannot prove that great reputation. Read our uncovering review for details!
Conclusion
EPoX EP-5P965+ GLI mainboard started selling pretty late. This is not a good thing, but not a dramatic thing either. In the end, there are different strategies; you can either rush a new “hot” but relatively raw product into the market right after the new chipset launch and then deal with the problems, or take your time and design a product close to being perfect before beginning to sell. DFI, for instance, doesn’t have any Intel P965 based mainboards in their product range yet, although some DFI Infinity P965 pictures have already surfaced in a few websites. So, the delayed launch of EPoX EP-5P965+ GLI is quite normal and understandable. Could be understandable if we saw a real mainboard instead of a prototype.
Our theoretical reasoning is refuted completely by Asus and Gigabyte, who managed to launch the entire family of Intel P965 based mainboards right after the chipset launch. At this time they are already preparing second and third mainboard revisions, absolutely new models, although even the very first mainboard revisions copes quite nicely with all the overclocking. So what were the guys at EPoX doing all this time? Because even the second BIOS version released in the end of last year didn’t solve the problems.
I hope that EPoX EP-5P965+ GLI will be able to run stably and reliably in nominal mode, that no other problems get uncovered during long-term operation. This poor overclocking result is comparable with what we would squeeze out of the new mainboard revisions of i945 based solutions. However, EPoX EP-5P965+ GLI cannot stand even this comparison, because all i945 based mainboards boast one great advantage: they cost half the price of EPoX EP-5P965+ GLI. So, it is really hard to recommend this mainboard even to those users who do not intend to perform any overclocking.
Frankly speaking, I do not want you to think that EPoX EP-5P965+ GLI is a complete failure. It is not true. Each product has issues and bugs in the PCB layout, BIOS features, even software. Thunder Probe monitoring utility is a significant step forward compared with the USDM (Unified System Diagnostic Manager) that used to come with EPoX mainboards back in the days. However, for some reason the developers paid more attention to the interface design rather than its flexibility and functionality. Besides, tools like that are primarily used for CPU temperature monitoring, however, the reports turned out to be lower than the actual temperatures and hence couldn’t be trusted. So, why would one need a beautiful but complex Thunder Probe tool, if we had to use CoreTemp during the test session?
First look is often deceiving. Having dwelled on the overclocking features of the EPoX EP-5P965+ GLI and uncovered a lot of issues all over the place we felt very anxious to put it aside as soon as possible. So, far not all the Intel P965 based mainboards are alike… However, I am sure you know it already. The only question that keeps bothering me is: aren’t EPoX ashamed of selling something like that?
Comdex 2003, my display rig in the Abit booth had a heart attack firing up at 4.4Ghz and the PSU was dead. I tracked back out onto the show floor and found Tom @ Enermax who said sure my 450w power supply could handle the situation, so he gave the the PSU in good faith and I hauled it back to the Abit booth with Tom in tow and snapped it like a twig. Whoops, so we go back out the Enermax booth and grab the biggest supply they had at the show, it was a 651w model that worked great for the entire duration of the show.
Well as luck would have it this year at CES we ran into power supply problems again with a 1Kw single rail from another popular manufacture failed to post on the bench rig.
Is it the WR for E4300 ?
Asus P5B Deluxe
E4300 1.7v
3/4 HP by Piotres
THG Upgraded; Gear Digest Launched
Omid Rahmat
February 5, 2007 01:48
Can we make you happy? Probably not, but we keep trying. In that spirit, 2007 is going to be a year of changes for us, changes that we hope will make you happy.
You will see some of those changes in our network today, changes designed to address some of your concerns, as well as adding opportunities for future expansion:
MobilityGuru and DenGuru have been combined into one site called Gear Digest (www.geardigest.com), We hope that in so doing, we will be better able to serve up reviews, news, and information on all things consumer electronics. There is a world of technology outside of the traditional PC market and we want to cover it, and bring our perspective to bear.
Tom's Hardware Guide has had a facelift. We have tried to clean up the design, and make it easier for our audience to navigate the site. I hope that you will find it an improvement and a benefit.
We have added drop down menus in the left hand navigation bar which should get you to our most popular categories quickly, and intuitively.
The Search function on the network has been improved. It should be quicker, and deliver the results you need.
We have made it easier for you to access our Archives, which are extensive, and go all the way back to 1996 when Tom's Hardware Guide first opened up shop.
We are going to be doing more on the video front so, we have placed a direct link to our videos in our navigation.
We have a few blogs running today, but we expect to have many more in the coming year. You will find a link to our blogs now integrated into the navigation.
The article pages have been reformatted to increase the amount of content per page, reducing the number of clicks you have to make, and we are working hard to reduce the clutter on those pages.
We have changed the TG Publishing corporate logo, and updated the corporate web site, too.
That's just today. There will be a number of other updates to the site over the coming months. Yes, there will be an article print function. Yes, TG Daily is getting a makeover soon. Yes, we will be adding new categories to all of the sites, and increasing our coverage. No, we don't give test hardware away to pleading members of our audience.
Just drop me a line with any comments or suggestions to omid@tgpublishing.net. I cannot promise that I will answer every email, but I will read them all. Finally, if you find a bug, or have problems with a particular browser, please let webmaster@tomshardware.com know so we can make the necessary fixes.
Omid Rahmat CEO TG Publishing
Intel Readies Processor with Integrated Memory Controller, I/O Functions.
Intel Tolapai with Built-In North and South Bridges to Emerge in 2007
Category: CPU
by Anton Shilov
[ 02/05/2007 | 04:36 AM ]
Intel Corp. the world’s largest maker of x86 microprocessors, reportedly plans to introduce a chip for low-cost systems with integrated memory controller and built-in input/output (I/O) functionality. The introduction of such processor may redefine the market of very affordable systems and may pose some threat to companies like Via Technologies.
Slides, which are presumably from Intel roadmap, indicate that Intel Tolapai system-on-a-chip (SoC) will include a Pentium M-like microprocessor with 256KB L2 cache, integrated dual-channel DDR2 memory controller that supports PC2-3200 (400MHz), PC2-4200 (533MHz), PC2-5300 (667MHz) and PC2-6400 (800MHz) memory modules, PCI Express controller as well as I/O bridge that features support for Serial ATA, USB, Gigabit Ethernet and so on.
The x86 processing engine on the chip will operate at 600MHz, 1.06GHz or 1.2GHz clock-speeds and its thermal design power varies from 13W to 25W.
The new processor, according to HKEPC web-site, will come in 1088-ball flip-chip ball grid array (FCBGA) form-factor and will be mainly aimed at embedded, small form-factor and low cost systems. For example, it is possible to assemble a very low-cost computer based on the Tolapai processor and accompanied by a graphics adapter, a hard disk drive, an optical drive and a monitor, which may be an interesting option for developing countries.
Currently Advanced Micro Devices and Via Technologies offer their Geode and C7 families of products to emerging markets and another rival targeting the same market segment with its offering will indisputably redefine the market of low-cost PCs. Intel once attempted to enter a highly-integrated platform code-named Timna, but cancelled the plan in the late nineties.
In addition to targeting emerging markets, Tolapai may also be the first highly-integrated chip of its kind with roadmap extending to central processing units with integrated graphics capabilities.
Tolapai client’s reference board is set to be available in Q2 2006 and the final product is projected to ship in late 2007.
Are you bugged by the Apple commercial where John Hodgman is the PC, and he has to undergo surgery to get Vista?
I've never seen it. I don't think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.
NEWSWEEK: If one of our readers confronted you in a CompUSA and said, “Bill, why upgrade to Vista?” what would be your elevator pitch?
Bill Gates: The most effective thing would be if I could sit down with them and just take them through the new look for a couple of minutes, show them the Sidebar, show them the way the search lets you go through lots of things, including lots of photos. Set up a parental control. And then I might edit a high-definition movie and make a little DVD that's got photos. As I went through, they'd think, “Wow, is that something I could use, would that make a difference for me?”
P5B Deluxe Release BIOS 1004
**Please update AsusUpdate to V7.09.02 or later prior making this update.**
**This BIOS does not support roll back to older BIOS**
1 Enhance memory compatibility
2 Support CONROE E0 CPU(FSB 1333)
been tooo busy these days, finally got some time playing with new chips.
Conroe E6850es
Stepping 9 = E0
all my E6850es in hand don't like much volts.
defult vcore=1.22~1.24v
< 1.48v maybe the best for E6850.
but...seems overclks better.
max fsb on Air = 533~570.
can we say: E6850 is better than E6600 ?
test results bellow are not the same chip
mobo=asus p5b-deluxe wifi/ap no mod, bios=1004
cooling=coolermaster fujin with 2*1700rpm 12cm fan.
ambient=14c
Conclusion
Trying to kill two birds with one stone, Cooler Master hit neither. The new cooling system has two good points: universality (it supports all the modern CPUs and GPUs) and low price. The rest are all drawbacks that outweigh the mentioned advantages by a large margin.
The failure of the Aquagate Viva comes from its design that implies that its heatsink and fans must be placed inside the PC case. Abandoning an expansion tank to make the system compact, the manufacturer endowed it with one more defect, a very small amount of coolant. The heatsink is small to achieve the compactness and, probably, to provide for several variants of installation and is also made of aluminum to reduce the cost. As a result, the two roaring 70mm fans can’t cool it efficiently and provide performance that would be at least acceptable for overclocking.
So, it’s good the Christmas holidays are already behind – no one is likely to present you the Aquagate Viva as a gift!
Summary
On January 26, 2007, Intel went public with the demonstration of their first processor core - codename Penryn - manufactured on a 45 nm dry lithography and running several operating systems at roughly over 2 GHz core speed. The manufacturing process - P1266 - has been working since January 2006 for the manufacture of the highest density SRAM cell array in the industry and is based on bringing back metal gates into the transistors while replacing the (SiO2) insulator with a precision-manufactured hafnium alloy High-k substrate using ALD technology.
The 45nm process-technology promises to put an end to leakage current runaway and allows the placing of roughly twice as many transistors per area compared to the hitherto used 65 nm (1264) process. Yield analysis is good at this point and the A0 silicon running is no small accomplishment. What else has Intel in stock for the next few months?
And what are IBM / AMD saying to all of this?
The day has finally arrived: the retail launch for Windows' new ambitious operating system. Surely with an event as highly anticipated as this one there would be PS3-like mayhem in the streets. Except there's not. We give our thoughts on why.I can not agree more on this, I also can't convince myself why I need to upgrade to this operating system. Read the whole editorial by expanding this article.
Why We're Not Excited
As this goes to print, Windows Vista is available in the retail channel. Can you feel the buzz? I can’t either, because there isn’t one. If anything, the buzz has been negative, and more along the lines of “Tell me why I need this again?” than a laundry list of Vista features that users can’t wait to get their hands on.
This is obviously not the position Microsoft wanted to be in leading up to launch day. I remember meeting with Microsoft last year at E3 where I had my backside filled with smoke for an hour by the Vista PR crew. The gist of our hour-long meeting was, “It’s going to be awesome!” I kept asking them specifically about DirectX 10 and what it would bring to the table, and they said that since no DX10 hardware was available at that time, they didn’t want to comment. But it would, without question, “be awesome!” They also didn’t have a lot of specifics about how Vista would specifically and tangibly be better than XP, but man oh man, it was going to be great.
Fast forward to July of 2006, and I’m sitting in a room (along with many other journalists) with Peter Moore, who is in charge of Microsoft’s new Games for Windows initiative. Several people ask him questions about Xbox live and other console questions, but finally I raise my hand in the air and say, “Mr. Moore, we’ve heard all this talk about how great Vista is going to be for gaming. Can you tell me specifically how gaming on Vista will be better than on XP?” He thanked me for my question, and then rattled off a PR-laden answer that is best summarized by “It’s going to be awesome!” He finished his answer with a claim resembling, “Just wait, you’ll see.”
Finally, a short time later, I get an email saying Microsoft’s Games for Windows and Vista people want to meet with me to show me how awesome Vista and PC gaming are going to be. I readily agree, but tell my co-worker before entering the room “If they tell me it’s going to be awesome one more time…” We enter the meeting and proceed to be snow-jobbed for a half hour once again. This time, however, the meeting focused on one solitary feature of Vista - parental controls. Now, I agree that is a good feature, but I don’t have kids so this feature doesn’t mean much to me. Besides, we were there to see how good Vista was at gaming.
What was interesting though, was they were running Vista on a Voodoo PC. At the end of the presentation they asked us, “Isn’t this running great on this Voodoo PC?” We said something like, “Sure, it looks great,” while shrugging to one another. The Microsoft representative then looked at us with a big smile and said, “We’ll send you a Voodoo PC next week, so you’ll have a super-fast PC to run Vista on in your lab.” This not-so-subtle art of diverting attention is semi-common in the hardware industry, but we were surprised to see a company as powerful as Microsoft stoop to this level.
While Microsoft was running a full-court press to convince journalists of Vista’s capabilities, it was also trying to convince a delay-weary public that despite Vista’s long, winding road to market, it would all be worthwhile. The problem is that a large percentage of potential customers stopped caring about Vista some time ago, especially when key features were cut and the OS kept getting delayed. The appearance of numerous articles and editorials describing the fledgling OS as an impending disaster for Microsoft also did not help Microsoft’s PR campaign.
Now that Microsoft’s largely ineffective marketing campaign is coming to a close, we’re all faced with the question of whether or not we should upgrade. To be fair, however, most of us know that we will eventually upgrade due to Microsoft’s inclusion of DirectX 10, so it’s not really so much a question of “if” but rather “when.” Indeed, DX10 is practically the only feature most of us want, and we’ll have to pay for it, as Vista is the only way to get it. Microsoft deserves credit, in a Darth Vader type of way, for tying DX10 into Vista in order to force consumers to upgrade.
But putting DX10 aside, what other features does Vista offer that are must-haves? I think the answer is none. We all know how lacking Windows 95 and 98 were (I won’t even bother mentioning the disaster that was Windows Millennium), and both those OSes clearly needed to be improved. When XP arrived, it basically fixed most of the problems people were having with the older OSes, and a lot of people – myself included – have been perfectly happy with XP for some time now. It’s surely not perfect, but it’s damn good and very stable. All applications and games work fine, drivers abound and it’s easy to work with. What more could a computer enthusiast ask for?
That is the vexing question Microsoft is seeking to answer, and it’s a tough one since most people seem to be rather happy with XP, in all of its iterations. However, in the interest of science, I’ve been using Vista for the past six months and it’s left me completely underwhelmed. Rather than being a major step-forward in User Interface (UI) design, accessibility, and ease-of-use, it’s largely a step backward. Everything from the wonky Start Menu to the broken address bar navigation is a mess. And I won’t even get into the unbelievably cluttered Control Panel, the Network Places confusion, and the constant “this program needs your permission” dialogue boxes that pop-up for something as mundane as transferring files from a Compact Flash card to your hard drive.
There are literally so many things that irritate me about Vista, it’s not even worth going into detail on each of them. Let me just summarize by saying Vista is the opposite of what I would call “user friendly,” and a lot of steps Microsoft has taken to make things easier have had the opposite effect. Throw in the discombobulated driver support, lack of support for third-party hardware, benchmarks that show Vista to be slower in games than XP, and its steep price tag and you’ve got an OS that most people don’t see the need for, and quite frankly, don’t really want.
Sadly, none of these issues will slow the adoption of Windows Vista. It’s been reported that Microsoft makes 80 percent of its operating system revenue from pre-built machines, which will fuel the adoption rate and allow for Vista to achieve widespread market penetration this year, despite the consumer’s reluctance to upgrade. Unlike with previous OSes from Microsoft, it seems that almost all Vista sales will be for pre-built PCs, rather than enthusiasts buying a copy for the PC they already own.
And enthusiasts won’t buy it because of a simple reason; at this time, there’s no compelling reason to do so. John Carmack, of the id Software fame, said it best recently in an interview with Gameinformer.com where he said, “I suspect I could run XP for a great many more years without having a problem with it.” He concluded by adding, “They’re [Microsoft] really grasping at straws for reasons to upgrade the operating system.”