Posted by Hanners
on Wed 27th Aug 2008
NVIDIA's NVISION event hasn't really been packed to the rafters with exciting information thus far for most of us - However, PC Games Hardware have managed to snag images of a whole handful of slides going into a little more detailing regarding Microsoft's forthcoming DirectX 11 API. The slides are cleared aimed at developers and thus are reasonably technical, but they're worth a look if you want to see the way DirectX is headed nonetheless.
You can find all of the images available for your perusal here.
AMD launches new desktop CPUs, cuts the prices of the rest
Posted by Hanners
on Wed 27th Aug 2008
It's been rather easy to forget about AMD's CPUs recently unfortunately, with so much talk surrounding Intel with Nehalem well on its way. However, the company's CPU division are still fighting to sell their parts, and yesterday announced some further price cuts as well as the launch of four new CPUs.
"This is a strong price move, indicating AMD's commitment to the channel, especially smaller system integrators," said Suman. "The market is soft right now but this has repositioned AMD well. The main battleground between AMD and Intel is the $135-$180 band."
Posted by Hanners
on Wed 27th Aug 2008
After the opening of the inaugural NVISION show on Monday, here's all of the news from the second day of NVIDIA's Visual Computing event.
Posted by Hanners
on Tue 26th Aug 2008
Earlier today, we tested YOYOtech's NightHawk Nova XT desktop system - Take a look to see how much horsepower £799 can buy you these days. Otherwise, here are the rest of the latest news and reviews:
Elite Bastards review: YOYOtech NightHawk Nova XT desktop PC
Posted by Hanners
on Tue 26th Aug 2008
Building your own PC system can be a very rewarding experience but, quite simply, it isn't for everyone. Whether it's down to a lack of time, not enough knowledge of the latest hardware to buy the best components, or simply a fear of having to put the whole thing together yourself, the reasons for picking up a pre-built system are numerous. Add to that the trials, tribulations, pitfalls and perils of overclocking your system, and you have yourself something else that you may well want to leave to someone else to worry about, leaving you to simply enjoy the finished product.
With these points in mind, today we embark upon the review of a full system that answers all of these concerns, courtesy of UK-based reseller YOYOtech. As well as hand-picking and building a system using their knowledge of the latest hardware on the market, it also sports a substantial pre-configured BIOS-level overclock to increase performance some way beyond otherwise similarly specified systems, all for just £799. Can it live up to all that promise? We check it out.
Right from the off, you can pick out plenty to salivate about in these base specifications, from the use of Sapphire's Radeon HD 4870 graphics board through to a hefty overclock provided to Intel's quad-core Core 2 Q9300 CPU to boost performance, all enclosed within Antec's latest high-end Twelve Hundred chassis. Also offered up is an LG Blu-Ray drive (which also supports the now-defunct HD-DVD standard incidentally), meaning that you won't have any troubles playing the latest High Definition movie releases either.
One item worthy of note is that this system, priced as it is at £799 including VAT, features only what you see above, meaning that no keyboard, monitor, mouse or Operating System are provided, so you'll need to source all of these yourself. If you're looking to replace your current system with something new in one fell swoop (which is clearly the aim of this particular system) then none of these items should be an issue however.
Posted by Hanners
on Tue 26th Aug 2008
Yesterday was the opening day of NVIDIA's inaugural NVISION event, which focused largely on a keynote speech by the company's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang. Check out our full list of coverage from the opening of the show below to find out what it was all about:
Posted by Hanners
on Tue 26th Aug 2008
We knew it was going to happen, and most likely pretty quickly, and that's exactly how it transpired, with AMD selling off the digital TV side of their business. The buyer? None other than Broadcom.
A month or so later the first of these sales has been completed, with the announcement that the DTV division has been sold to one of the most likely purchasers: fabless semiconductor outfit Broadcom, for roughly $192.8 million in cash.
As well as providing a much needed cash injection for AMD, this seems to mark a strategic move by Broadcom in the DTV market, as stated in the press release: "This deal aims to enhance and strengthen Broadcom's innovative DTV system solution offerings while delivering the scale and focus needed to forge a market-leading DTV business."
Posted by Hanners
on Mon 25th Aug 2008
Western Digital's latest offering uses just three platters in its attempt to create the fastest Terabyte hard disk drive on the market - But do they succeed?
The drive compares quite favorably in all its specs to the Samsung HD103UJ, which was the top performer in our one terabyte roundup of hard drives.
We compared performance of the WD1001FALS with a number of top performing hard drives, including the WD6400AAKS, the Samsung Spinpoint F1, the Hitachi 7K1000, and WD's own speedy (but capacity constrained) VelociRaptor. Comparing against the VelociRaptor gives us some idea of the capacity versus raw performance tradeoff.
- The number of multiplayer slots may be expanded for the PC version (16 is the limit for the console versions).
- The maximum resolution is 2560x1600.
- Players can record 30 second clips and then they can add filters and adjust the camera angle using the replay editor. They can also paste clips together and then upload them to R* Social Club for others to view online.
- Players can search for multiplayer games more specifically (e.g. a deathmatch with pistols only).
- The Xbox 360 controller is compatible with the PC version.
GG Mania has the news - It's got some screenshots too.
DirectX 11 information at NVISION 08