AM2 Heatsink Roundup
Lots of cooling choices for that new AMD AM2 chip.

"So you’ve got a new AM2 based machine and you want to keep it cool, but you don’t know what heatsink to use? We didn’t either, so we tested seven coolers from six different companies to find out. Rather than just show you a graph with a bunch of temperatures we also take into account ease of installation, perceived noise levels and price. This way you can make an informed decision about which heatsink is right for your application."

Read all about it here, courtesy of HardOCP.com:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEwNSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

-Eric

Western Digital and Seagate: 320GB Grudge Match
Something for that new Conroe system...

This was a pretty interesting test between Seagate and Western Digital. Don't write off Seagate too quick, looks like they clean Western Digi's clock. Nice work Seagate...

"We are looking at Western Digital's WD3200KS product today that features a 16MB drive buffer, native 3Gb/s SATA support, 320GB capacity, and 7200 RPM spindle speeds. The SE16 series is available in 250GB, 320GB, 400GB, and 500GB capacities and is considered to be Western Digital's High Performance desktop series. This series also features WD's advanced acoustic technologies, Whisperdrive and Softseek. The 400GB drive offers 1.5Gb/s SATA support while the other drives offer 3Gb/s SATA support but lack Native Command Queuing as Western Digital believes this technology does not benefit the typical desktop user.Seagate was founded in 1979 and manufactured the first hard drive for the personal computer in 1980. The company is headquartered in Scotts Valley, California with research and design facilities in the US, Northern Ireland, and Singapore. Manufacturing and customer service sites are located in: California; Colorado; Minnesota; Oklahoma; Northern Ireland; China; Malaysia; Singapore and Thailand.

Read all about it here, courtesy of Anandtech:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2803

-Eric

$300 Gaming CPU's: AMD 5000+ Versus Intel E6600
The battle of the "budget" processors...

"As for which processor wins the battle? The answer really isn't that easy to answer. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 processors have a ton of support in the market right now. You can find AMD AM2 motherboards running chipsets from ATI, VIA and NVIDIA all over the place. An example of this is Newegg and the fact that they carry 36 AMD AM2 motherboards with the prices starting as low as $63 for one of these boards. If you look at the Intel side of the market it's still just starting out with very few Intel 965 Express based motherboards on the market. This morning Newegg only lists five Intel 965 Express Core 2 Duo ready motherboards with pricing starting out at $148 and two of the five are sold out. With the Intel 965 Express chipset being out for nearly six weeks I expected more than five motherboards to available today. Like I pointed out in my launch article the limiting factor for Intel will be their chipsets. "

Read all about it here, courtesy of LegitReviews:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/365/1/

-Eric

AMD + ATI = True Love
These crazy kids are perfect for each other.

It seems investors are ga ga over this new acquisition, however is this really a match made in heaven? This will more than likely bring Intel and Nvidia closer together. Will this be good for the consumer? One would most certainly think so...but you never know....

"AMD is heading into a brave new world with this acquisition, one of high-growth cell phone and handheld computing graphics, high-margin entertainment set-top boxes, and (of course) high-revenue mainstream PC graphics. The focus on the entertainment opportunity makes AMD's recent divestiture of its Alchemy line of embedded processors all the more curious, but perhaps the company is planning to move its mobile architectures down into the embedded space. Then again, maybe ATI brings a surprise to the wedding. Here's a fistful of bird seed, and I wish the happy couple all the best."

Read all about it here, courtesy of Msnbc.msn.com:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14011810/

-Eric

AMD buys ATi
Joining forces to battle Intel and NVIDIA...

Buisness partners somtimes make strange bedfellows, or somthing like that...
Ok, whatever..
The real deal is this could be an interesting merger between to embattled companies. I only wish that AMD had merged with NVIDIA...oh well. This does have the making of some pretty monumentous happenings. Keep your eyes here for updates!

"Driver Heaven: - Where do you see AMD/ATI gaining strength by this deal? Any potential losses by it?

Jon Carvill: We plan to promote our complementary business strengths, including industry-leading products, technologies, manufacturing leadership, geographic strengths, and customer and partner base. In the near term, 2007, we should be able to deliver new customer-centric, open platforms for key market segments faster than either company could have done alone. Today we both have “go-to-market” strategies. By putting them together, because we have such complementary strengths, we believe we will create an “accelerate-to-market” strategy to allow us to deliver in 2007 products that will bring very specific value to customers in key segments like commercial and mobile markets. We will aim to transform processing technology with general-purpose, media-centric, data-centric and graphic-centric open platforms, to re-engineer the future, in 2008 and beyond."



Read all about it here, courtesy of Driverheaven.com:
http://www.driverheaven.net/dhinterviews/joncarvill/

NVIDIA Quad SLI DIY Interview
Total immersion gaming for the masses, as long as you have the bank roll to afford it.

Don't get me wrong, if I had the dough to blow on a gaming system this would be it. I would be all over this faster than Anna Nicole Smith on Bill Gates at a cocktail party. In all seriousness, a word of caution, until game code writers develop code that fully utilizes Quad SLI then this may be overkill. If you have the cash to burn, go for it.

I know many of you have heard about Quad SLI. Dell and a few others have been supplying Quad SLI machines for a while now. With the launch of the BFGTech GeForce 7950 GX2, Quad SLI moved into a new realm. These new single PCIe slot video cards were designed with two things in mind: bringing SLI to those without an SLI motherboard, and allowing those of us with SLI motherboards the ability to install and utilize what is equivalent to four of the fastest video cards in the world in a single system.

Read all about it here, courtesy of HardOCP.com:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTExNiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Eric

Microsoft buys Windows utility software maker
It's doesn't bode well, when you buy a company that specializes in system recovery and data protection for your upcoming flagship product...

Terms of the deal to acquire the Austin, Texas-based company were not announced. Among the software that Winternals offers is a set of freely downloadable tools known as Sysinternals.
As part of the deal, the software maker is naming Winternals co-founder Mark Russinovich as a technical fellow.
"I've had my eye on Mark for some time," Jim Allchin, Microsoft divisional co-president, said in a statement. "The work he and Bryce (Cogswell, Winternal's other co-founder) have completed in system recovery and data protection illustrates the depth of thinking and skill they will bring to future versions of Windows. The addition of their deep kernel-level expertise to our existing strong talent will help provide us with the edge we need to continue to raise the quality and functionality bar for Windows on both the client and the server."

Read all about it here, courtesy of News.com:
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+buys+Windows+utility+software+maker/2100-1016_3-6095376.html?tag=nefd.top

Eric

Is 'Apple Backlash' a Media Invention?
Somthing tells me this has the smell of Micro$oft to it...

The funny thing about all the "haters" who are creating this backlash are suspiciously quiet about the fact that Apple has premiere customer service and exchange policies. There is no argument that some of their products are showing some defects. It should be noted that Apple fully steps up to the plate to make things right, by either replacing or promptly repairing with a no questions asked mindset.

"Some news outlets are reporting that Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) reputation with consumers is wearing thin, but Wired columnist Leander Kahney thinks they are wrong. Apple is getting some bad press thanks to Chinese sweatshop claims, quality control issues, and French DRM legislation. Consumers, some reports say, are responding with an anti-Apple backlash.
"In fact, there's no consumer backlash at all," Kahney says. "Apple's firing on all cylinders and is selling more Macs and iPods than ever."


Read all about it here, courtesy of Macnewsworld.com:
http://www.macnewsworld.com/rsstory/51793.html

Eric

RIAA loses in file sharing case
Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned...

"Debbie Foster is not the only mother to stand up to the RIAA. A 42-year-old disabled, single mother from Oregon, Tanya Anderson, is currently fighting the RIAA's file-sharing allegations. She denies downloading hip-hop over Kazaa and decided to fight back after being contacted by the Settlement Support Center. There is also the case of Patricia Santangelo, a divorced mother of five living in New York. Her case is currently headed for trial in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York, after a motion to dismiss was denied."

Read all about it here, courtesy of Arstechnica.com:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060713-7257.html

Eric

Intel Core 2 Gaming Performance
The battle for the best dual core, went from hot to nuclear.

Intel is attempting to leap frog rival AMD with their new Core 2 CPU's. The CPU segment of the market has always been competive, now it is just plain manic. That's good news for us, the consumer, as these two giants will slug it out for best price and performance in an effort to get a sale.
Anytime, there is that much competition, the consumer wins. The only choice facing us now is when to jump into the fray and purchase a CPU and from who.

"Let's just cut to the chase. You will see a lot of gaming benchmarks today that just simply lie to you. That is right, you will see frames per second numbers that are at best total BS, and at their worst a terrible representation of what difference a new Intel Core 2 processor will make in your gaming experience. The old ways of video game benchmarking do little to tell you about exactly how a new CPU will affect how you play your games or what experience your system supplies to you. Having more CPU power is a very cool thing, but being able to utilize it is not an easy thing to do nowadays."


Read all about it here, courtesy of: HardOCP.com:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEwOCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

-Eric

Microsoft to show off Vista at Asia hacker conference
...throwing meat into a pool of sharks is never a good idea for the meat.

I had to chuckle this morning when I read this article. MS is intending to make Vista available to hackers before its release. Their intention is to learn about it's vulnerabilities before it is launched. Ummm...yeah that’s a real good idea. I am sure those hacker types are honest and ethical type folks who would tell all your vulnerabilities and never leak any of their findings to the internet community.

Microsoft plans to give a hacker conference in Asia an inside look at new security features on Windows Vista later this year, the organizer of the event said Tuesday.
The company's commitment to show off Vista to the hacker and security community is part of a long-term trend aimed at gaining greater feedback from users prior to product debuts. More and more software and hardware vendors are trying to weed out vulnerabilities before products go to market, and they often turn to the underground and above ground security community for advice.
"Companies know that fixing vulnerabilities in already released products is always going to be much more expensive than finding and squashing them during the development stage," said Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, organizer of the 6th annual Hack In The Box deep knowledge security conference (HITBSecConf2006) set for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in September.

Read all about it here, courtesy of pcworld.idg.com.au
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;419647435;fp;2;fpid;1

-Eric

***News you can use edition***
Crashing NVIDIA WHQL Drivers
When bad drivers ruin good equipment...

Thanks to Kyle and the gang over at HardOCP, they have confirmed the new NVIDIA v91.31 video drivers corrupt hard drives and cause severe system crashes when used with nForce 570 and Intel 955x motherboard chipsets.

"Hopefully not many of you will fall victim to this due to the new series 5 NVIDIA nForce motherboard product just now getting to market, but is something to be aware of. We have tested two nForce 570 SLI chipset motherboards here recently that do not take well to the latest v91.31 WHQL video card drivers when using the latest v9.16 WHQL chipset drivers from NVIDIA. In fact, using these v91.31 drivers with the nForce 570 resulted in crashed operating systems and corrupted hard drives. It seems that the problem may not stop there either. One source in Taiwan mentioned that the problem might extend to the Intel 955X chipset as well.

nVidia Forceware V91.31 has compatible problem with nForce 570 SLI and Intel 955X chipset. Please downgrade to nVidia Forceware V84.21 or try the latest V91.33beta.

The v91.33 Beta video card drivers are available directly from NVIDIA.

From our internal testing, it seems as if the v91.33 beta drivers do in fact fix the severe crashing issue."

Read all about it here, courtesy of HardOCP.com:
http://www.hardocp.com/

-Eric

Report: Spammers Shift to Blogs and IM
...revenge of the spammers.

I can assure you I am not a spammer and this blog is certified 100% 3DCOOL worthy. I have however, been accused of rambling incessantly on more than one occasion...

By Walaika K. Haskins July 10, 2006 9:50AM

The increased effectiveness of spam filters for e-mail and the lack of any such filters for newer communication technologies, such as blogs and instant messaging, are part of the reason spammers have turned to new channels to distribute their messages, explained Paul Stamp, an analyst at Forrester.
A growing number of spammers are using mobile text messaging, blogs, instant messaging, and social-networking sites to deliver their unsolicited sales pitches, a new report has found.

Read all about it here, courtesy of Sci-Tech-Today.com:
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=022002GFG8IK

-Eric

SanDisk's Lil' Monsta Goes On A Rampage In MP3 Land
Eating All Types Of Content In Effort Against Conformity

SanDisk comes up with one trick pony in the portable music player race. Will it's WinXP dependence be it's Achilles Heel?

Posted by: Dashken
When SanDisk ® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) launched a viral "blogosphere" campaign last month called iDon’t - with a humorous take on conformity involving a certain ubiquitous digital audio player with white earbuds - it triggered a worldwide debate. Some partisans cried "foul" while others hailed the effort for encouraging MP3 player alternatives and open music platforms.An iDon’t website (www.idont.com) depicted whimsical posters and tee-shirts with slogans such as iSheep, iFollow and iChimp . Some of the faithful "i" followers laughed along with the satire, while others took offense at the images.Today the iSheep have been replaced by SanDisk’s new mascot - the Lil’ Monsta . Users who click on the iDont website now will see the ravenous creature leading viewers to its lair - a new website that explains the features of SanDisk’s Sansa ™ digital media players. The Lil’ Monsta devours all sorts of digital content - including music, movies, videos and photos. And, with a seemingly insatiable appetite, it demands to be fed constantly. Link:
http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/PressRoom/PressReleases/PressRelease.aspx?ID=3452

Read all about it here, courtesy of Forums.techarp.com:
http://forums.techarp.com/showthread.php?p=280756#post280756

-Eric

MS Music Player With Free iTunes?
MS is at least being creative in "wooing" potential customers to their music player

I said here yesterday "MS can beat Apple if their delivery, cost and content is easier, better and cheaper than the well established Apple iTunes interface." We can add shrewdness to that list. I mean that in a good way, of course.

Engadget says that Microsofts upcoming MP3 player will have Wi-Fi and, as a way of wooing over new customers, will allow you to re-download your iTunes music for FREE.

To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you've already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They'll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it'll be worth it to acquire converts to their new player.

Read all about it here, courtesy of, Engadget.com:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/06/microsoft-planning-wifi-enabled-portable-media-player-working-o/

-Eric

MS iPod Rival Out By Christmas
Can Microsoft take a bite out of Apple and beat them at their own game?

I am going out on a branch here and I am thinking: "Nope, not gonna happen."
Ok, I am now going to be a bit more optimistic. "MS can beat Apple if their delivery, cost and content is easier, better and cheaper than the well established Apple iTunes interface."
You heard it here first.

Microsoft Corp. has been touting the new player to record companies in the last few weeks as well as a new integrated media software application developing a system akin to Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod/iTunes integrated ecosystem.

Read all about it here, courtesy of Reuters.com:
http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-07-05T205941Z_01_N05308816_RTRIDST_0_MEDIA-MICROSOFT.XML&rpc=66

-Eric

Intel to launch dual-core Itanium 2 CPUs on July 18
Dual-core "Montecito" processor line enters the "Chip Wars" fray...

Well, its good to be back after a long holiday weekend. Hopefully, you still have all your fingers and no incriminating video evidence. Seriously, it was a fantastic weekend spent with my fiancée Lisa.
On to the news.
Intel is set to unveil the new dual-core Itanium 2 CPU's on July 18th. Along with a much lower power consumptions, come a higher price tag.

Read all about it here, courtesy of Digitimes.com:
http://digitimes.com/mobos/a20060630A7039.html

-Eric