Brag: My Penryn and X38 Chipset

Heya all, I'm still alive and very much in business. A lot of people I talk to in real life has been asking if I'm still on hardware thing, and I said, "most definitely". In fact, that is the sole reason why I can't update my Blog as much as I want to.

Anyway, if one has any doubts, just check out this new toy. I am not sure if many review sites have gotten their hand s on these babies already, I never really have time to check the hardware sites. Check out the image, it goes to the official CPUZ Validation site. Sorry, no benchmark...

Tech Link (Roadmap): Intel Pulls Yorkfield Extreme Edition Into 2007

Looks like better days are coming for the true and faithful FanBoys. The newer products are going to launch earlier than originally sceheduled. It bodes well for those planning an upgrade, or just want to get their hands wet with the latest and greatest. Ready your wallet boys and girls (image from VR-Zone).

Intel has brought forward the launch of Yorkfield Extreme Edition from Q1 2008 to Q4 2007 bringing pressure to AMD Phenom FX slated for launch later this year. Intel has not determined the final clock speed of Yorkfield Extreme Edition but it will be at least 3.33GHz/1333FSB with 2 x 6MB shared L2 cache. Yorkfield and Wolfdale schedule remains unchanged at Q1 2008 and there are 2 SKUs for Yorkfield and 4 SKUs for Wolfdale.

Source:Intel Pulls Yorkfield Extreme Edition Into 2007

Tech Link (Processor): New Crysis Video: Game kicks a$$ on Intel's Penryn Quad Core

Yeehaw, watch and see how smooth the game play is with the new Penryn-based quad core system. It's like you're watching a movie rather than playing a game, no stall, hiccups, or stutter whatsoever. This platform rocks. The specs is as follows:

System configuration:

Intel Penryn 45nm "Yorkfield"
quad core CPU @ 3.2GHz
Intel 975BX2 Motherboard
NVIDIA 8800GTX
2GB RAM, 250GB HDD
Windows XP



Source:New Crysis Video: Game kicks a$$ on Intel's Penryn Quad Core

Tech Link (Platform): Vigor's Quadfather Uses AMD Quad FX CPUs

THG has an article posted about a AMD's 4x4 platform. We all know that this platform sucks and some of you might be thinking why post AMD things. Well, I am a Fanboy and if I see Intel products beating AMD's crap to a pulp, you'll see me post it here for sure. And this one is pretty good, if you're an AMDroid who is a masochist who likes torturing yourself, then get this platform. Otherwise, rejoice and just go a single-chip solution quad-core from Intel and have fun poking at the poor green bloke. Expand to read what THG has to say, or just read this excerpt:

We can't fault Vigor for building a system using inferior processors when these are the best an AMD enthusiast can buy. Instead, we'll put the blame on AMD for not keeping pace with the competition, and hope for a quick turnaround as new products are released.

Conclusion
If one were to add up everything Vigor Gaming put into its Vigor Force Recon QX4, its $4,900 price appears reasonable. Yet the 54% performance gain from Dell cost only 46% more. For anyone with an extra $2300 to spend, the Dell appears to be a better deal without even considering peripherals.

The Vigor Force Recon QX4 doesn't include a monitor it its base price. The Dell we tested included its 2407WFP 24" LCD monitor, a $670 value. Deducting that, the Dell system actually cost only 33% more, for a 54% performance gain.

We can't fault Vigor for building a system using inferior processors when these are the best an AMD enthusiast can buy. Instead, we'll put the blame on AMD for not keeping pace with the competition, and hope for a quick turnaround as new products are released.

Source:Vigor's Quadfather Uses AMD Quad FX CPUs

Tech Link (Processor): Intel prepping Barcelona response

A friend sent me the link from Geek.com BLURB post about the new processor from Intel, Intel® Xeon® 3230 that overclocks well. Not that I am surpised about it, but I thought the comments are really informative. Check it out...

BLURB


Let's skip past all the niceties and just cut to the chase on this one. Intel is prepping a Barcelona response, and it looks to be amazing. The processor is a Xeon 3230, which is of the 65 nm Clovertown variety. It is officially spec'd to see 2.66GHz with a 1.066GHz FSB, up one step from the 2.4GHz Xeon 3220. However, the tester of this quad-core machine was able to get it to boot into Windows at 3.4GHz with a 1.67GHz FSB. It would POST at 3.8GHz with a 1.7GHz FSB, using memory timings of 3-3-3-5 on DDR2 800 at 2.25V. No kidding! SiSoft's Sandra saw a memory benchmark int he 8.7GB/s range.

Imagine a quad-core machine with such high overclocking potential on unreleased silicon--especially in the Xeon lineup. Quite an impressive demonstration of manufacturing prowess.

Read more and see a CPU-Z screen shot at The Inquirer, and post your thoughts below.

Source:Intel prepping Barcelona response

Misc: Clarification on Barcelona Benchmark

Last week, I blogged about a V8 8-core system beating a Barcelona 16-core system. However, at the link posted, I am a bit lost since there was no mention of the Barcelona benchmark on the YouTube video, and there was no link about Barcelona hard numbers from the source. Anyway, I just got another email last Saturday (sorry, I just got time to blog it now) that apparently, there is indeed a Barcelona benchmark.

For those who haven't seen the YouTube video, check this out...

Brag: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Overclock (Stock Cooler)

It seems that I am really lagging behind posting some items on my Blog. Anyway, I just want to share the 50% overclock of the quad core Kenstfield under the Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 branding. At this speed, all I can say is that it's awesome and the CPU fan is silent even at full load.

Don't expect any benchmark, I have posted several benchmarks on the Intel® Core™ 2 QX Extreme Edition series as well as on the Intel® Xeon® X32xx series. What I just wanted to share here is how easy it is to overclock the quad core on the current i965P platform. If you are looking for a brand spanking new system, I suggest you go and get a quad-core based system. You may click on the CPU-Z for the validation...

Tech Link (Processor): sub-$400US quad cores emerging

I saw this posted over at XS and I figure it's worth letting you guys know as well. This Intel® Core™-based Intel® Xeon® X3200 series processors are really great quad core processors, and in my experience and testing, they are a lot better than Intel® Core™ 2 Quad in terms of voltage and temperature. If you haven't seen it yet, you may want to check out my Article: The Little Intel® Xeon® X3210 that could!. Expand to read more...

The Xeon DP X3210 s775 is emerging and available at some places for awesome prices. Remember: Q6600 price cuts aren't too far off

EU:
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/150359/Intel-Xeon-X3210-(S775-4x-2.13GHz-8MB-1066MHz-FSB-Boxed)-prijzen.html
http://geizhals.at/eu/a238093.html
US
http://www.google.com/products?q=X3210&btnG=Search+Products&scoring=p&sa=N&start=10

Source:sub-$400US quad cores emerging

Brag: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 is on the loose...

Boredome finally dawned on me and I decided to play with a quad core, not the extreme series, but your typical Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600. I still haven't pushed it to any kind of overclocking, but I guess I'll start it once I got an inspiration.

Anyway, like I said, bored, bored, bored and so not even a speck of benchmark for this baby. I'll try to put it to its paces this weekend so stay tuned (and if I forgot, just ping me). You may want to click on the image to visit the validation, that's all for now, FanBoy out...

Rant: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Performance Benchmarks

Ok, this is not a Tech Link for a reason, and it's just my random rant. I happen to stumble upon this AMDtech news bit (yes, yes, I know it's DailyTech) from XS. It is about AMD's upcoming video card, and no, that's not my rant, but before I post my rant, let me quote part of the news bits:

Onto the benchmarks. The tests were conducted on an Intel D975XBX2 BadAxe2, Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 and 2x1GB DDR2-800 MHz. The operating system on the test system was Windows XP, with a fresh install before benchmarking each card. Testing of the AMD ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT was performed using the 8.361 Catalyst RC4 drivers, while the GeForce 8800 GTS used ForceWare 158.19 drivers.

I bolded the items which I wanted to emphasize. So here's the rant: why would AMD used a Bad Axe 2, of all the boards capable of CrossFire? And didn't ATi already have their very own chipset that supports CrossFire with an AMD CPU? Or if I am mistaken, I know there's a board for Intel that has an ATi chipset that can support Crossfire and quad core (Fatal1ty F-I90HD) so why not this one instead? And even if they really prefer i975, why not Asus for such demo?

I know that they can use anything they like, but I just find it odd that of all the possible alternatives, they end up with a competitor's board, and chipset, not to mention, processor.

Update (04/26/2007): Apparently, DailyTech is the one running the benchmark. I am really not sure, because their first paragraph is as clear as mud and can be very easily mis understood:

After several delays, AMD plans to launch its long-awaited R600 graphics processors. AMD is currently briefing select members of the press on its R600 architecture in the Tunisia, but there is no embargo date on the R600 for DailyTech -- we can show you benchmarks now.

Anyway, here's the update that makes it much clearer now:

* Our benchmarks for Half Life 2: Episode 1 showed an abnormal framerate for the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS card that scaled with lower resolutions -- we believe there was a copy error. We reran the tests this morning and achieved 119.2 frames per second with the GeForce 8800 GTS.

Press Release: Intel Delivers Its Fastest Enthusiast Quad-Core Processor

I posted the breaking news yesterday, but here is the official info from Intel. When I check Intel web site yesterday, the info is not yet out, probably because it wasn't April 09 yet across the globe yay, hurray for GMT+8 in my location. Anyway, I have copy/paste the official info from Chipzilla, so if you want to check it out, you can expand for more.

Intel Delivers Its Fastest Enthusiast Quad-Core Processor
Added Performance Welcomed by 'Hardcore' PC Users and Developers
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Apr. 9, 2007 – Intel Corporation today advanced its enthusiast-level quad-core processor family with the introduction of the Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor QX6800, the company's twelfth quad-core processor offering. Running at 2.93 GHz -- the fastest native clock speed yet reached with the Intel® Core™ microarchitecture for the quad-core desktop -- this addition to Intel's innovative processor family sets new standards for desktop PC performance. The Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX6800 is ideal for those gamers, digital design professionals and enthusiasts who crave the highest performing computers they can get their hands on.

At the recent Game Developer's Conference* in San Francisco, several software developers demonstrated new games that have been "threaded" to take advantage of multiple processor cores and threads. This increased performance can help deliver smoother gameplay, more realistic game effects and more lifelike artificial intelligence. Some of the most exciting titles of the year such as Crytek’s Crysis*, Gas Powered Games’ Supreme Commander* and Flagship's Hellgate London* have undergone substantial joint engineering efforts with Intel to use more than two processing threads to their advantage.

One of the first games ever developed for the PC is also entering the quad-core era. "The latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator* X, Service Pack One (SP1), due out later this month, is a great match for the extreme multi-core processing delivered by the new Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor," said Phil Taylor, Flight Sim Program Manager, Microsoft Game Studios. "Flight Sim X SP1 greatly increases multicore utilization and will scale as more threads are available leading to reduced load times as well as frame rate improvements and greater visual complexity during flight. The Flight Simulator team at Microsoft is pleased to work with Intel to provide our end users with a great gaming experience."

In addition to delivering adrenaline to hardcore gamers, the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX6800 is also being embraced by media users and developers. Adobe*, Cakewalk*, DivX*, Sony Creative Software* and dozens of other developers have delivered applications that use all four cores, enabling media professionals to do what they do best-- capture creativity quickly and reliably. For example, the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor QX6800 is up to 65% faster1 than the Intel Core 2 Extreme dual-core processor X6800 on video encoding. This is a key capability as more households are recording and editing high-definition video to capture, preserve and share memories.

"The performance and technology leadership we are delivering with our enthusiast quad-core processor lineup is a direct result of the reliability provided by Intel's manufacturing and engineering strength," said Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Home Group. "This translates to user benefits such as better gameplay with more intelligent computer-generated opponents and less wait time for demanding high-definition media editing."

The Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX6800 is produced on Intel's industry-leading 65 nanometer process, key to enabling the large 8 megabyte cache. A 1066 MHz system bus is supported and the processor is available now at a cost of $1,199.

Source:Intel Delivers Its Fastest Enthusiast Quad-Core Processor

Press Release: SiS Announces Chipset License Agreement on Intel® Core™2 Quad FSB 1333MHz

This is good news. SiS has been a long standing player in the chipset arena and they aren't new to Intel hardware. They have been releasing really affordable chipsets, they have graphics, lan, and I believe even, audio solutions. They are known in the "affordable" line of products. Check it out...

SiS Announces Chipset License Agreement on Intel® Core™2 Quad FSB 1333MHz
Taipei, March 28, 2007---Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), a leading supplier of core logic chipsets, today announced that it has signed a long-term licensing contract with Intel for the manufacture and sale of chipsets for the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor with 1333MHz front side bus.

SiS ' latest chipset license agreement with Intel demonstrates our working relationship and mutual cooperation.

"SiS will be offering the next generation products to support high-speed FSB 1333MHz for the Intel® Core™2 Quad processors," said Daniel Chen, the CEO and President of SiS, "These new chipsets will strengthen SiS product portfolios with another high-end option for consumers seeking extreme performance and innovative design."

Source:SiS Announces Chipset License Agreement on Intel® Core™2 Quad FSB 1333MHz

Tech Link (Motherboard): Intel P965: abit AB9 QuadGT

AMDTech got busy and gave their first impression experience with the new motherboard from Abit*. While the board seems to perform, AMDTech are still torn between giving it an uber board or just typical board. Check out their review...

First Impressions

abit has done a wonderful job in the design and inclusion of high quality components on the AB9 QuadGT when compared to the AB9 Pro. The layout, feature set, performance, and BIOS options obviously place this board at or near the top of the Intel P965 product offerings. We really like the board and were impressed with its overall performance. In fact, the board just seems to be light years ahead of the AB9 Pro, but an otherwise excellent design is ruined by an immature BIOS. The issues we discovered during testing make us wonder if the light is on at abit's quality assurance department. We have briefly described some of the problems we faced during testing but there are more.

In our USB testing we found if the BIOS was changed from USB Keyboard or Mouse support via OS to BIOS then Windows XP would refuse to load if it was installed or if we tried a new installation from the CD drive. Additional USB testing revealed that any USB drive attached that is not a bootable device will result in the same behavior with XP not loading.

During storage drive testing we noticed the board would not run our Optical drives in DMA mode and defaulted to PIO mode regardless of how the JMicron controller was setup when utilizing the latest firmware and driver updates on our test image. We had to complete a new XP SP2 install with the JMicron controller setup as a RAID device in the BIOS and load the driver set via the F6 command in order to get DMA support for the Optical drives.

We also noticed IDE support from the JMicron controller was not available if we were using a RAID setup on the Intel ICH8R controller. We have noticed this before on other motherboards utilizing the JMicron chipset. However, this issue has generally been solved so we expect abit to have a solution shortly. For now, we recommend purchasing a SATA DVD drive and turning off the JMicron controller altogether unless you need the e-SATA support.

The JMicron fiascoes have hit every board manufacturer at one time or another and if you want to blame somebody then start at the doorstep of Intel for shipping a chipset without native IDE support before the market was ready for it. Of course, the motherboard suppliers could have opted for the VIA IDE controller that Biostar uses without issue, but then e-SATA or additional SATA port availability would not be on the option list. Considering most people would rather have at least one solid IDE controller rather than a couple more SATA ports that they often won't use, Biostar's decision seems to make the most sense, even if it doesn't look as good on the feature table comparisons.

Our retail sample was also delivered with the incorrect I/O panel shield so it appears to us that somebody was sleeping or watching Oprah during the packaging operation. Besides the issues listed above and the ones mentioned during the article we have to say the worst offense committed by abit is the memory voltage setting issue with the µGuru utility. The inability of the current µGuru application to correctly read and display the memory voltages set in the BIOS could directly lead to product failure as in our example.

Normally, we test each option and software switch and then reboot to ensure the BIOS setting matches the application in use. Unfortunately, after using version three of this application for the past few weeks we trusted it would work correctly. Instead of checking each setting before starting our benchmarks we assumed our memory voltage settings were correct after increasing our voltage slightly during the overclocking stability tests. We will no longer assume that µGuru and the abit BIOS are working in tandem before we start our test sessions. Needless to say, frying memory that costs over twice as much as the motherboard being reviewed was not a pleasant experience.

Overall, our initial experiences with the AB9 QuadGT have led us into a love and hate relationship with the board. We love the layout, performance, stability, and overall quality of the motherboard. This motherboard has tremendous potential and is a board we want to own for a long time. We hate the obviously early release of the product and the issues encountered to date as they should not be occurring. Several of the issues discovered in our initial testing can be blamed on an immature BIOS release and should be solved quickly, but we have to wonder why these issues even exist. It seems as if part of abit did not learn from the AB9 Pro launch while others took those same issues to heart and solved them. This situation reminds us of an old saying, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." After spending a few days with this product we can attest this saying has never been truer.

Source:Intel P965: abit AB9 QuadGT

Press Release: New Intel Processors Expand Quad-Core PC, Server Line-Ups

It is now official, Intel finally unleashed new mainstream quad core processor targetted for high end computing at a mainstream price, relatively speaking. Don't get any impression that this lower-clocked quadcore is cheap, while the word expensive might come to mind, it is important to remember that this isn't targetted for everyone, only for those who have a need for quad core computing, whether business or benchmarking or plain pimping. Expand to read the full press release...

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Jump Starts Digital Applications, Software and Devices; Two More Server Quad-Core Products Introduced
INTERNATIONAL 2007 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, Las Vegas, Jan. 8, 2007 –Intel Corporation formally introduced three more quad-core processors, including the first to carry the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor brand name that begins the expansion of quad-core PC sales to mainstream buyers. Intel now offers a total of nine quad-core processor versions in the desktop and enterprise market segments.

The Intel Core 2 Quad processor packs four brains in every PC and delivers the immense speed and responsiveness that is increasingly required to process today's most demanding media-intensive applications. This processor is available in PCs and in the reseller channel immediately. Intel also announced two quad-core processors for single-socket servers. Today's announcement builds on the company's revolutionary Intel Core 2 Duo and quad-core microprocessor families, with 29 dual and quad-core processors for sale in the desktop PC, laptop and server market segments.

"Today Intel delivers another breakthrough—quad-core technology for anyone's PC," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. "The performance once requiring a supercomputer is now on the desktop, allowing you to do new and amazing things."

Intel's multi-core processors are designed to enhance the computer user's experience from start to finish. These microprocessors, which are based on the Intel® Core™ microarchitecture, target performance desktop and gaming PCs and will benefit from highly threaded software applications that target these market segments. Intel is actively working with software developers on threading applications and next-generation games that will be able to take advantage of quad-core microprocessors. The four cores make quad-core based computers the ideal choice for processor intensive, highly threaded applications such as Adobe After Effects*, Premiere Pro 2.0*, Windows Media Encoder*, Snapstream* and Win DVD*. Combined with the availability of Microsoft Windows Vista*, this launch marks a rare occurrence in which new processors and a new operating system hit the market about the same time.

In addition to new levels of performance, these products bring consumers multitasking capabilities that enhance the way they create, experience and enjoy digital entertainment. Computers with the Intel Core 2 Quad processor are excellent for high-definition video entertainment and are multimedia powerhouses for demanding software applications run simultaneously. With four compute cores, the processor is uniquely designed for running multiple digital streams throughout the home – making it the ultimate entertainment engine for Intel® Viiv™ technology-based PCs.

New Quad-Core Server Processors
Intel also introduced today the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 3200 series for single-socket servers. Built on the Intel Core microarchitecture, these products will bring new levels of energy-efficient performance to entry server applications such as e-mail, Web, file and print. Two new processors are available today with clock speeds of 2.4 and 2.13 GHz with a 1066 front side bus and 8 MB of L2 cache.

Intel has made this next step in the computer's ongoing evolution as fast and easy as possible through continued investment in silicon process and manufacturing technology. Intel's advanced processes can help reduce the amount of energy required to run computers and "shrink" a processor's make-up to place multiple cores inside one product at more affordable prices.

Pricing and Availability
The new Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q6600 (2.4GHz) has been announced and is currently being demonstrated at CES. It is available now at $851 in 1KU quantities. Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor pricing includes the X3220 (2.4GHz) at $851 and the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X3210 (2.13GHz) at $690.

Source:New Intel Processors Expand Quad-Core PC, Server Line-Ups

Press Release: Ice Storm Fighters Game Technology Demo

This is a demo they have shown over at IDF to showcase the power of QuadCore. It's quite taxing on the CPU, well, that is, if you don't have quad core. Check it out....

01/05/2007
Multi-core processors have become mainstream in the PC industry, and many classes of software applications like multimedia encoding and 3D rendering already benefit from the added processing power.

The game industry is also evolving toward threaded games and game engines. The latest-generation game consoles (Microsoft* XBOX* 360, Sony* PlayStation* 3) also feature multi-core processors. Current games like Quake*4, Call of Duty* 2 and Splinter Cell* Double Agent already have threaded game engines. And upcoming games such as Unreal Tournament* 2007 (Based on the Unreal* 3 engine) are expected to feature threaded engines.

To demonstrate how threaded games and game engines will benefit from multi-core processors, Intel worked with Futuremark* to create the game engine technology demo - Ice Storm Fighters.

Today, we're making the game available for free here at ICF. To learn more about this demo and where you can download it, click Next.

The Skinny
Ice Storm Fighters is based on a multi-threaded game engine developed by Futuremark*, makers of the 3DMark* and PCMark* series of benchmarks. The Ice Storm Fighters game engine technology demo features

Artificial Intelligence (AI) : Uses the Co-operative Optimizing Planner (COP) algorithms to determine movement paths for the game units. Each unit takes into account the objective, the location, positions of other units, physical obstacles etc. before determining the path.
Physics using PhysX* API physics engine and custom physics code, which enables
Characters with individually modeled body parts for more life-like features
Advanced physics modeling of missile contrails, smoke and other particle effects
Calculates thrust, gravity, acceleration of the hovercraft
Improved decal modeling of explosions and footprints in the snow

The objective in Ice Storm Fighters is pretty simple: blow up the bad guys. In this demo, that takes the form of destroying enemy "mechs." It also involves the presence of both friendly and unfriendly hovercraft as supporting characters.

Let 'er Rip
Ice Storm Fighters is based on a multi-threaded game engine, and its performance scales with the number of processor cores as well as other PC platform components. Using a technique called "n-number threading," the Ice Storm Fighters game engine will generate as many threads as there are CPU cores present on the system.

Ice Storm Fighters is intended to be a forward-looking game engine technology demo for Intel platforms. Here are the system requirements:

CPU: Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX6700 or Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 processorQuad-Core CPU for “Demo-high” mode features & capabilities, dual-core Intel CPU for “Demo-low” mode features & capabilities

Graphics Card: Support DirectX* 9.0 Shader Model 3 required. nVidia* geForce* 6 series (minimum), 7 series (recommended), ATI* Radeon* 1650 or higher

Memory: 1GB or higher

You can launch either the demo to just watch the mayhem unfold, or you can play the game and jump right into the fray. If you're running the demo, after you launch Ice Storm Fighters, you can:


Choose "Demo-High" if the system has a quad core CPU
Choose "Demo-Low" if the system has a dual core CPU
If you're ready to get your game on, once you kick off the Ice Storm Fighters game, you can choose:

Choose "Game-High" if the system has a quad core CPU
Choose "Game-Low" if the system has a dual core CPU
Notice at the outset of the demo that the snow surface looks fresh. It won't stay this way for long.

You can interactively control the number of threads in flight. The 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys will enable/disable CPU cores if you're running a quad-core system. You'll notice that the frame rate slows down noticeably when you run Demo-High on only two cores.

The workload can also be controlled by increasing or decreasing the number of hovercraft. Additional hovercraft means leads to increased AI (determining their direction of movement) and physics (torque, acceleration) processing. Increasing the number of hovercraft increases the computational load and decreases FPS and vice-versa. The "F3" key increases the number of hovercraft units, and the "F4" key decreases the number of hovercraft units

Here's a summary of the available key commands:


Key Map
Observe the fired missiles. the motion of the missiles includes detailed physics calculations and includes factors such as gravity, speed, direction, angle etc.. The condensation trails (i.e. emitted smoke) are also modeled with in-depth physics calculations.

Ice Storm Fighters also maintains an extended list of decals, which include the marks left by missiles and lasers as well as the footprints created by the movement of the mechs. In a typical game, as new marks occur the decal buffers are overwritten. Ice Storm Fighters maintains an extended decal list.

Demo-Low has fewer hovercraft, which decreases the AI and Physics workloads. In addition, it has simpler smoke and particle effects for the missiles, and maintains fewer decals. These changes lower the computational workload to enable Ice Storm Fighters to run smoothly on a dual core system.

Come and Get It
Ready to give Ice Storm Fighters a try? Click the image below to download it to your system. After you've played with it a bit, head over to our Forums and let us know what you think. It's a good idea to print this article as a reference to have handy when you're playing the game. If you're having any trouble running Ice Storm Fighters, post in our forums, and we'll figure out the problem.

To download, click on the image below, then save the Ice Storm Fighters ZIP file to your hard-drive.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others

Source:Ice Storm Fighters Game Technology Demo

Press Release: abit introduces the AB9 QuadGT Motherboard

Seems like abit* is going against the big, bad, Asus* when it comes to releasing uber boards. Of course, nVidia* has their own, but nothing beats Intel on Intel! Check out the latest news from abit*.

The new board comes with a digital PWM, all-solid state capacitor, and external CMOS reset switch. I think when it comes to coolness, Asus*' Commando would have taken the crown easy. Besides, Asus* touted their OCability, abit* is yet to show theirs. But nonetheless, if it is a lot cheaper than Asus' version, I'll go with this board anytime. Expand for more....

January 2, 2007 - abit today announced their latest Intel® P965 chipset based motherboard for Core™2 Quad/Duo processors, the abit AB9 QuadGT. This motherboard has been specifically engineered for and around LGA775 quad-core CPUs with up to 1066 MHz FSB. It is equipped with abit's powerful µGuru™ technology for extensive hardware monitoring and control. The extreme tuning and overclocking capabilities of this exclusively abit engineered microchip stands unsurpassed in the industry. With the New Year, abit also ushers in an entirely new generation of extreme computing.

Cool, Stable, Efficient and Extreme
The AB9 QuadGT is geared towards extreme performance. Accompanying the native support for Intel's latest quad-core and Extreme Edition CPUs, abit took measures for an even higher performance potential to be explored by the users themselves. A 6-layer board layout equipped with 100% Japanese made solid state capacitors and ceramic digital PWMs warrant the best electrical characteristics under the most stable currents. abit's patented Silent OTES™ convection heat-pipe design keeps the Northbridge as well as the digital PWMs efficiently cool. These abit engineered features prolong your the life of your motherboard product and dramatically increase durability by protecting vital components from strenuous thermal and electrical stress.

Games, Multimedia and Full Action

The AB9 QuadGT motherboard does not only have extreme power under the hood, it is also ready for full on gaming and multimedia action. Two X16 PCIe slots offer a wide range of multiple graphics options. Despite one of the X16 PCIe slots only supporting PCIe X4 bandwidth, it still caters adequately to most of today's graphics needs, including CrossFire operation. Alternatively you can also use this slot for other PCIe cards such as LAN, RAID, TV or audio add-on cards. A simple and flexible solution that serves almost any high-speed expansion demands. The 3-pin HDMI header connects with HDMI ready graphics cards, offering crisp HD audio.

6 internal SATA 3Gb/s and 2 eSATA connectors for the fastest hard drives on the market form the basis for more than sufficient storage capacity, while the single Ultra DMA 133/100/66/33 IDE connector provides the option to keep your older optical drives and HDDs running.

Source:abit introduces the AB9 QuadGT Motherboard

Tech Link (Industry): Intel’s Affordable Quad-Core Chip for Desktops Due in Days – Rumours

XBitLabs posted a news/rumor about the upcoming QuadCore from Chipzilla. As per the said article, the quadcore will be "affordable". Hmm, sounds like great news for the FanBoyz! Expand this if you would like to read the full scoop.

Intel Quad-Core Core 2 Quad Q6600 Set to Be Released in January

Category: CPU

by Anton Shilov

[ 12/27/2006 | 11:55 AM ]


Intel Corp., the largest maker of x86 microprocessors on the globe, is expected to release its new quad-core processor for desktops in days, at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The release of chip will allow Intel Corp. to further increase its competitive advantage over arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 chip is expected to run at 2.40GHz, come with 8MB L2 cache and use 1066MHz processor system bus. The new microprocessor is projected to cost $851, which is much higher than that of premium dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo 6700 chip, which costs $530, but is still lower compared to $999 the chipmaker charges for its “extreme” versions of its Core 2 microprocessors with two or four cores.

The 40th Consumer Electronics Show will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from 8th to 11th January, 2007. The exact release dates of the launch are unclear, but, according to a report from IDG news-agency, the chip will be formally unveiled at the show.

The new microprocessor, which rivals not only dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 central processing units (CPUs), but even the high-end platform called Quad FX that includes AMD Athlon 64 FX chips, will be yet another example of Intel’s competitive advantage over its main rival AMD.

Still, the popularization of quad-core chips does not mean that Intel will cease to improve its dual-core microprocessors. Intel is projected to release Intel Core 2 Duo processors with E6850, E6750 and E6650 model numbers with 3.0GHz, 2.66GHz and 2.33GHz clock-speeds respectively and 1333MHz processor system bus in Q3 2007, when appropriate code-named Bearlake-series chipsets become available. The new chips will support TXT technology.

Due to pretty high prices of the quad-core microprocessors, their share among Intel’s desktop shipments will be only 3% in 2007, according to some information.

Source:Intel’s Affordable Quad-Core Chip for Desktops Due in Days – Rumours

Misc: All I Want For Christmas is....

_{Images with a girl model owned and came from THG}
So, it's Christmas time today. We just finished our tradition of sharing food come Christmas Eve on 00:00 hours. It's fun and lively, and we got to open up our gifts and I'm satisfied with I got from wifey.

However, I still have requests, not from wifey, but from my very own pocket. Somehow, I need to raise my money of my own and get myself a piece of hardware. This has been a nagging target since the product has been announced, since I've seen the very first review, and since I first lay my eyes on it on the announcement page. I just can't help but drool, I so want this hardware. What is it you ask? Well, let me list it for you.

So, I already have an Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX6700 and Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X6800. These CPUs are a total kick ass and has been very good with me so far. They overclock really well, and both can do 3.73GHz even on stock cooler. And for higher than such overclock, an aftermarket cooler and a hefty bump in vCore is needed. Go check out my previews on them by clicking on the links.

And then, I have this superb motherboard from Abit. Man, I am so overwhelmed by this motherboard, except for Intel's very own Bad Axe 2, I haven't tested any other board that can handle the Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX6700 and Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X6800 this good. My only gripe is that Abit is so slow to release any new BIOS to provide better-than-average overclock on the Kentsfield, but with Conroe, it's all smooth sailing.

But, and this is a big "but", I don't have my favorite RAM. I so want this RAM, I wish I have all the moolah. I just ran out of moolah and I am stucked with a 2x512MB Micron DDR2-533MHz with Fat Body D9 chips. Sure, my current RAM can overclock really well, around DDR2-800MHz for about 2.2v-2.3v, but it's not as cool looking as this OCZ PC2-7200 Spec Ops Edition Urban Elite from OCZ. That's all I want for Christmas, and I don't think I can even get one, so sorry FanBoyz, no review for this memory, not even soon.

Anyway, not to have my spirits dampen by such, I will still be happy with what I have right now, and I sure am having a Merry Christmas this year. Thanks for stopping by and reading my yet another blog posting. Till next, and may your Christmas be merry and happy too.

Tech Link (Motherboard): Quad Core Bliss? : Nvidia’s nForce 680i SLI and Asus’s Striker

GamePC posted a comprehensive review of the new board from Asus. It does overclock really well, but they are not impressed with the pricing. I personally don't really like 3rd part chipset, but coming from Asus, I may have a change of heart on this one.

The Final Word
The Asus Striker Extreme is, and will remain for the foreseeable future, the premiere Socket-775 motherboard on the market. The nForce 680i chipset which is the core of this platform supports all of the high-end features which enthusiasts demand now, along with being the most future proof platform on the market, supporting technologies like 1333 MHz FSB and DDR2-1200 speeds. In addition, the board supports 16 x 16 SLI, a dedicated third PCI Express x8 slot, 6 x SATA-II/300 RAID ports, just about every high-end feature an enthusiast can ask for. This board would certainly be our favorite Core 2 platform to date if it wasn’t for some lingering BIOS issues which are hampering stability at this point.

As one would expect for a platform of this nature, the Striker Extreme is incredibly expensive – more so than any other Core 2 platform to date. Asus does, however, provide a slightly less exorbitant option in their P5N32-E SLI platform, which uses the same chipset and PCB design, but lacks features such as the diagnostic LCD screen, backit LED’s, dedicated power/reset/CMOS buttons and dual eSATA, in addition to having less chipset cooling and a more limiting BIOS. However, for the removal of these items, you can expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $100 less for this board compared to the Striker Extreme. While those who want absolutely everything, the Striker is there, but for those who have a bit more common sense, the P5N32-E SLI is an excellent 2nd choice.

We will say, no other Core 2 platform we’ve tested to date matches the high-end overclocking features of this board. We certainly appreciate Asus providing high-end overclockers the necessary tools to achieve the highest speeds without any arbitrary limitations thrown in for their protection. Also worth noting, Asus recently launched a board called the “Commando” with a similar concept and overclocking features like the Striker, but is based on the Intel P965 chipset. For those who don’t want SLI and want to use a little less power, while keeping tremendous overclockability, this might be a board worth considering.

Our benchmarks showed that if you’re only using a single graphics card (even a high-end model like the 8800 GTX), you will see virtually no performance difference between these high-end platforms. The only area we saw real performance differences were where applications required disk access, and in these cases, the Intel 975X chipset tended to perform a smidge better. We’re confident that Nvidia will ramp up their SATA performance in time, but for now, Intel’s got the edge here. We would still recommend an Intel based chipset if you’re looking for stability rather than performance.

The Striker Extreme is a dynamo of a motherboard, there’s no doubt about that. Personally, I feel that the feature-set doesn’t justify the cost, and if I was purchasing a high-end platform for a new quad-core system, I would likely opt for the less-expensive P5N32-E SLI. Once Asus gets their BIOS issues worked out and we see the price drop a tad, we feel that the Striker will rightfully take its place as the most lusted-after Core 2 platform on the market.

Source:Quad Core Bliss? : Nvidia’s nForce 680i SLI and Asus’s Striker

Tech Link (Motherboard): FOXCONN 975X7AB-8EKRS2H Motherboard Review

I know, I am on a posting spree, this is what's happening when you put a FanBoy on a vacation leave. It just gives me more time to brag and post and brag and post, what more can you ask from a FanBoy? Anyway, LegitReview got themselves busy with a nice motherboard from FoxConn. This motherboard is the only board that I know of that has a digital VRM to regulate power for the CPU. It looks ok, not attractive, but decent enough. The red PCB reminds me of standard board from MSI though, but anyway, check this out since LegitReviewer seems impressed.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion
So what do you say about a board that:a) Has a great layout with a great bundle; b) Performs as well as any other board out there; c) Overclocks like mad? You say that this board should be on the top of your list as you are looking at motherboards to house your brand new Core 2 Duo processor. Also, we should mention that this board comes in at a MUCH lower price than many other boards out there. Right now, you can pick this board up for a cool $159.99, which is much less than the $200+ that some of these new Core 2 Duo boards are retailing for.

One thing that should not be overlooked as we close up this review is the fact that Foxconn heard us when we let them know of a bios issue, and then within a matter of 72 hours, we had a new bios in hand, that had been tested by them over the weekend to make sure that it worked properly. This is almost unheard of anymore in the industry.

Feature-wise, this board has really everything you would want. And the bundle that comes with it is very generous considering the "low" price tag. The Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H motherboard can be found for $159.99 from online retailers, which makes it less than competing boards like the abit AW9D-MAX that we reviewed at the start of the week. The Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H represents great value from a price versus performance standpoint and an ideal motherboard for those looking to try out mild overclocking.

The ability to run a Crossfire setup also insures that you will be gaming to the best level that you can, and that you will be able to upgrade to a dual card setup if needed at a later date to extend the life of this board.

Legit Bottom Line: Foxconn really has outdone themselves with the offering of the 975X7AB. The performance and overclockability of the board are outstanding and the customer support is first class. This board certainly was not a "Dog" but a Fox to be desired. What more could you ask for in a board? With all that said, at $159.99, this board is certainly worthy of of value award for the 975X series of boards.

Source:FOXCONN 975X7AB-8EKRS2H Motherboard Review