W.I.L. Hardware Tech-News Highlights November 2005

Connecting up your HDTV, Windows Media Center PC, digital media adapter, set-top box, DVD player, and game console into a coherent home theater whole – link.

Home Theater PC enclosure 4-way roundup shows heartening progress in the form-factor. Quite a few small strikes against each case still exist, however – link.

– Small Form Factor machines

Shuttle’s SD11G Pentium M-based SFF machine is extra quiet and miles ahead of the competition right now, and extra expensive – review.

Shuttle’s XPC M1000 Home Theater PC attempts to bridge the gap between the office PC and the living room entertainment center. It feels like a work in progress, and is of limited utility given its high price – review.

Mac Mini clone barebones PC from Aopen now available in quantity, lists for $399 with Linux installed – link.

Mac Mini will be reborn as the digital hub centerpiece it was originally conceived to be in January 2006, with Intel CPU – link.

Gigabyte’s CB91 PicoBTX barebones system is reminescent of the usual mATX SFFs available on the market, is particularly well laid with an interior that seems to be well suited for a full packed system, and does run cooler than the typical SFF – review.

– Notebooks

Three budget (~$500) notebooks proved surprisingly capable at standard office tasks – link.

Choosing the best compact notebook – Part 1.

$600 notebook roundup: crowning the affordability king. Nod goes to Gateway’s NX200S for the best overall package – link.

Genesi announces the development of the 4U2 sub-laptop based on the EFIKA 5K2 reference design and the Freescale MPC5200B – link.

Sony’s VAIO VGN-T2XRP-S notebook, based on the Ultra Low Voltage 1.2GHz Pentium M ULV 753, is an economical yet sufficiently high-performing configuration with a wide screen display, which will not call for an upgrade in the near future – review.

Asus’s Z63A “whitebook” laptop is a barebone system, complete with a carry case as well as a laptop cordless optical mouse, to which you can add the components that you wish – review.

Dell, once the low-cost interloper among slow-moving giants, is now looking like a big fat target itself, especially in the laptop market – link.

Logitech’s diNovo cordless desktop kit for notebooks gives your hands a break while you are on the road – review.

CPUs, motherboards, chipsets

Tom’s Hardware Guide CPU Charts allow you to compare two CPUs vis a vis a chosen benchmark – link.

AnandTech’s November motherboard price guide – link. AnandTech’s November CPU price guide – link.

Chip clock speeds will only double or triple in next 15 years – link.

Single-core CPUs ain’t dead yet: investing in a fast dual-core system for performance reasons does not pay off today – link.

CPU roundup tests different offerings vis a vis latest games, and concludes that with today’s powerful graphics cards, a gamer getting a powerful CPU will be just a waste of money. Thus the choice rests on performance for some other applications. If you are shopping for a budget CPU, however, the AMD Sempron wipes out Intel’s Celeron-D – Part 1, Part 2.

Hard drives to be integrated into chips. Soon – link.

AMD and Intel gear up for server fight to death – link.

AMD annihilates Intel in dual core benchmark tests – link.

– AMD

AMD’s 1.8GHz Opteron 165 is the new performance champ, and is reasonably priced as well … the cheapest Dual Core AMD chip – review 1, review 2.

The Athlon X2 3800+ dual core 2GHz CPU is compared to a Dual Opteron as well as a number of other competing processors including a Pentium M model – review.

ULI chipset roadmap update – link.

Via’s K8T900 is the first chipset from Via to provide multi-GPU support. It also supports SATA2, NCQ, HD Audio, RAID5 and quite a few PCIe lanes – link. K8T900 is “promising”, say Web-site reviews – link.

WinFast’s NF4K8MC-EKRS MicroATX Socket 939 motherboard’s limited audio functionality and need for a chipset cooling fan will limit its uses for home theater systems, but it is cheap, small, and stable – review.

Winfast’s 6150K8MA-8EKRS motherboard is powered by the Geforce 6150 and the nForce 430 MCP, probably adding up to the fastest integrated graphics mainboard currently available. Aimed at the entry level with its core set of accessories, its specs are quite nice with SATA2 RAID, Integrated 7.1 channel and GbE – review.

Gigabyte’s K8N51GMF-9 nForce motherboard brings HD Audio to entry level Athlons with Geforce FX 5200/5500 type graphics, SATA2 RAID and Firewire, at a cheap price – review.

Biostar’s Geforce 6100-M9 TForce aims at the RS200 series from ATI. It is quite affordable, offers excellent features for a mATX board, superb BIOS overclocking and is quite stable. You will have to get yourself a real graphics card if you are planning on some gaming – link.

Epox 9NPA+, Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI and DFI Nf4 SLI-D motherboards examined – link.

Via launches the K8T900 chipset featuring dual 8x PCIe slots – link.

ATI’s RD580 dual x16 Crossfire chipset previewed, and it looks like a promising new competitor in the enthusiast AMD chipset market … when it is available – link.

Sapphire’s PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 offers GbE, SATA2 RAID, 8-channel HD audio, Firewire and more. It is a spectacular performer … too bad the price is so high … and just try finding one – review 1, review 2.

– Intel

Forthcoming 65nm dual-core chips will run faster, incorporate larger onboard memory caches, and still have space to add circuitry to support virtualization or other on chip features, while fitting within power budgets similar to those of today’s dual-core chips – link. Intel’s quest for less power-hungry processors – link. Intel’s two 65nm manufacturing processes – link. Intel readies 65nm desktop chips for 1st of January – link.

Intel readies 65nm Pentium 4 desktop chips for 1st of January – link. Intel’s notebook roadmap summary here.

Graphics

AnandTech’s November video card price guide – link.

PCI Express has some inherent features absent in the spec list of PCI-X that give it the final advantage – link.

S3’s 90nm Chrome S20 series signals company’s intention on remaining relevant in the graphics market, but it is just a paper launch at this point – link. S3 turns to Transmeta tech for low-power graphics chips – link. S3 readies 6600 SLI killer – link.

Mid-range graphic cards roundup gives at least temporary advantage to Leadtek 6800GS – link.

Matrox Graphics adds multi-monitor support for laptops – link Matrox’s DualHead2Go is an interesting concept, but it is going to be more or less useless for the average PC user … especially at the going price – review.k

Inno3D’s 7800GT sports one of the best reference coolers out there, and overall is a superb card at a nice price, especially if you own a LCD monitor – review.

Core upgrade and move from GDDR1 to GDDR2 makes GeForce 6600 cheaper, faster. For under $100 you can now have a PCIe card with DirectX 9.0c and SM 3.0 with 256 MB of memory – link. XFX’s Geforce 6600 GDDR2 card brings mainstream gaming to the masses … and the DDR2 performance hit is minimal vs. its GDDR3 counterpart – review 1, review 2.

nVidia’s midrange (~$249) GeForce 6800 GS has set a difficult bar for ATI to leap, and in doing so has injected a lot of value into the most important price segment – link. Discussion here.

nVidia’s GeForce 6800S at around $199, is a Ferrari for the price of a Ford – review.

PowerColor’s X800 GTO VIVO combines an advanced micro-architecture with a low price. It is a reliable and inexpensive graphics card based on the time-tested RADEON X800 architecture for people who do not need high performance in OpenGL applications and Shader Model 3.0 in those few games that use it – review.

ATI’s All-In-Wonder X1800 XL offers superior performance in contemporary 3D games, as well as remarkable video and TV viewing opportunities and the exceptional features for work with multimedia content that the AiW family of cards has always (uniquely) offered, for “only” $429. It is not without its flaws, however – review 1, review 2.

Memory, storage

AnandTech’s November storage price guide – link.

2GB will soon be the sweet spot for RAM. OCZ’s PC4000EB Platinum Edition 2GB modules impress, price-wise – review.

HDDs and NAND Flash to fight in consumer electronics space, says research firm – link. Seagate to speed up performance of tiny hard drives – link.

Pretec readies smallest USB Flash drive yet, at 2.7 x 1.9 x 1.2cm, 1 gram, and 128MB – link.

New technology from U3 allows a USB Flash drive to store and, when plugged into any PC, securely run applications without leaving a trace of data on the host computer, permitting you to temporarily turn any Windows 2000 or XP system into a personal workstation without threat to your privacy – link.

OCZ’s 2GB Rally USB 2.0 Flash drive really delivers bandwidth-wise – review.

Mainstream Blu-Ray Devices to emerge in Spring 2006 – link.

LG’s GSA-4167B DVD±RW is a universal, multi-format (even DVD-RAM!), high-quality dual layer burner – review.

– Hard Disk Drives

12 notebook 2.5” HDDs compared. Hitachi grabs the picks for the best budget and top of range drives – link.

Samsung uses two 125GB platters in its Spinpoint P120 250GB 7200rpm SATA2 HDD with NCQ. Performance lags the competition, but it runs cool and quiet, and is cheap – review.

Seagate’s Savvio 10K.1 server-oriented 2.5” SCSI HDD reviewed and compared with competitors – Part 1, Part 2.

Seagate’s Barracuda 7200.9 HDD comes with 500GB as well as NCQ, SATA 2 support, 16MB cache, superb performance and a fantastic 5 year warrranty – link.

Seagate’s Momemtus 7200.1 100GB 7200rpm 8MB HDD is virtually silent, delivers desktop-performance in a minute space and the 100GB come handy if you want to set up your own micro HTPC to go under your Plasma screen – link.

Maxtor 250GB 16MB cache SATA2 Diamondmax 10 HDD is tested in various configurations, exploring NCQ and RAID, and succeeds in overwhelming even the mighty but ageing Raptor in some instances – review.

Thermaltake’s Muse external enclosure for 3.5” and 5.25” devices has elegant looks and smart design, but neither the price, size and weight, nor performance are particularly attractive – review.

Linux-based TVisto series 3.5” multimedia HDD enclosure is also a multimedia jukebox – review.

LaCie’s Ethernet Disk mini 300GB external HDD lets you hoard, back up, and share data easily and affordably, albeit a bit noisily – review.

Cases, power supplies, cooling

– Cases

Case basics and recommendations from SilentPCReview (updated) – link.

Cooler Master’s Praetorian 730 aluminum alloy enthusiast case is a winner in design and style, and is a value to boot for what you get – review.

Coolermaster’s Centurion 531 steel midtower case comes with a 120mm fan case opening as well as a toolless design, and comes at a nice price – review.

Antec’s P150 is quiet, compact, and “environmentally friendly”. It only comes in white and the PSU is not optional – review.

Antec’s P180 case supplies silent, efficient cooling, although managing the cables through the slots can be a bit tricky at first. One of the best possible cases out there today – review.

Zalman’s TNN300 chassis is an ultra-expensive totally no noise tower. It still does not support full size ATX and you cannot put whatever GPU in there. Verdict … eagerly awaiting for the third generation – link.

– PSUs and cooling solutions

Thermaltake’s Powerstation 520w modular PSU should be good enough to feature in your top five purchase list – review.

Thermaltake’s Big Typhoon cooler compensates for its relatively low speed fan by its massive copper core and its large (120mm) fan size – review.

Sharkoon’s Silent Eagle 1000 and 2000 8mm case cooling fans have blades that are dimpled like a golf ball, which allow a better airflow at the same rotation speed and reduces noise to almost silent operation by lowering the turbulence and air resistance. Hopefully they will expand the number of sizes available in the future – review.

Is cooling your CPU with the watercooling-based Koolance Aquian ICM-505+CPU kit worth it? For serious overclockers, perhaps – review.

Antec’s VCool provides video card cooling on the cheap – review.

Miscellaneous components and periferals

A brief introduction to sampling audio – link.

Four mini keyboards reviewed – review.

Do the new 19” LCDs pass muster? 9 monitors are put to the test – roundup.

The Samsung Syncmaster 204T 20.1” LCD costs only around $550, has a brillant display, offers the option of landscape or portrait orientation, has a thin profile, and supports both VGA and DVI inputs – review.

Dell’s Ultrasharp 2405FPW 24” LCD monitor has a four figure contrast ratio and a WUXGA+ resolution, enough for two side by side A4 pages. It even includes a memory card reader, four USB 2.0 ports, S-Video, and composite and component inputs – review.

Viewsonic’s VG920 19” LCD monitor has a quality display and beefy built-in speakers, but is light on other features – review.

Canon’s SED technology monitor seems to be the natural son of TFT and CRT monitors, combining the thinness of the first and the qualities of the second and improving on them. Supposedly first monitors using the technology will be out in late 2006 – link.

LEDs work like butterflies’ wings – link.

Scientists in Japan have made a breakthrough in white LEDs which will mean much brighter units can be made – link.

Corepad’s cloth Eyepad mouse pad is the bee’s knees – review.

Wacom’s Intuos 3 tablet is no one’s best choice – review.

Taking a look at the new Nokia 770 (Linux-based) tablet – link.

A new Sprint phone gives you just about every way to connect you could want. Too bad it runs on a sad new version of Windows Mobile – link. Linux answers cell phone makers’ call – link.

Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-T5 1.5cm-wide digital camera provides enough detail for large prints, even up to A3. So if all you need is a small, eminently pocketable, digital camera with basic controls but oodles of wow factor, then it is sure to hit your sweet spot. – review.

Previous	Tech-News Highlights Home	Next
Back to top