W.I.L. Hardware Tech-News Highlights for December 2005

The top 10 holiday gadgets for 2005 – link.

10 failed tech trends for 2005, leading off with the BTX form factor and high-definition video on the PC – link.

The Best, the Worst, and the Ugliest in 2005 – link.

Best gadgets of 2005 – link.

Systems

A post-holiday purchase guide, for budgets from $1000 to $2000 (which seems to include graphics cards costing close to $300 or more) – link.

Tips and tricks for quiet computing – link.

Top 10 things you do not want to forget before you build a custom PC – link.

Genesi launches “Home Media and Communication System” built on the PegasosPPC platform, utilizing the Freescale G4 processor – link.

Suggestions for quiet but powerful Photoshop/Painter system – link.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 impresses – review. Was the original Xbox was a good or bad thing for PC gamers? – link. XBox 360 a harbinger of the PC lockdown to come? – link. The 11 mistakes of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 discussed – link.

Home Theater PC TV Tuner reviews – link.

Running Linux and Windows on the Sony PSP – link.

HP’s AMD-based DX5150 small to medium business PC looks pretty nice, and is also quiet. It should fill the bill for most users – review.

Seven budget laptops from Acer, Asus, F-Siemens, HP, LG, Samsung and Toshiba compared. Your choice will depend on whether you most value mobility, sheer power, graphics, or aesthetics – link.

Choosing the best compact notebook, Part II – link.

BenQ’s Joybook R53 Centrino is the first laptop to come with a 16ms response time LCD panel – review.

The Evesham/AOpen Mini PC Plus is the Intel-powered alternative to the Mac Mini. It looks good, but does not offer enough to be a Mac beater, at least not at its current price – review.

Taiwanese device maker Quanta Computer has been selected to design and build the $100 computers planned as part of M.I.T.’s One Laptop per Child initiative – link. Discussion here.

What would you do with a supercomputer? – link.

CPUs, motherboards, chipsets

AnandTech’s December motherboard price guide – link.

The Xbox 360 CPU story – link.

2005, a stormy year for desktop CPUs – analysis.

Workstation CPUs duel of AMD’s Opteron vs. Intel’s Xeon results in convincing victory to former – link.

Intel to turn tables on AMD on desktop front in 2006 – link. 2006 notebook chips mean an Intel-AMD standoff, with 45nm the coming battleground – link. AMD-Intel server market faces Woodcrest vs F-Step scrap – link.

– AMD

AMD set to launch new CPUs after April 2006, DDR2-supporting chips to ramp up quickly – link.

AMD demos dual-core mobile chip, Yamato notebook platform – link.

The Sempron 3000+ (Socket 939) is another outstanding value processor from AMD – review.

Can you get an AMD X2 3800+ processor to overclock to levels of a CPU costing twice its price? Yes, and easily – link 1, link 2.

ULi introduces M1697 “high definition PCIe single chip” chipset, supporting AMD M2, 754, 939, and 940 CPUs. ULI claims it will bring high performance multimedia and gaming to systems when paired with M1695 Hypetransport tunnel chip – link. ULi M1697 launched, along with 4 motherboards featuring it. Features include HD Azalia audio support delivering 7.1 channel surround, an AHCI-based SATA II 3 Gbps host controller with NCQ, and RAID 0,1,0+1,5,JBOD. Chipset also has eSATA capability, which allows connectivity of external peripherals at 5x USB speed with cable up to 2 meters – link 1, link 2, link 3.

nVidia to purchase ULi, seeking to co-opt a savvy rival while staving off competition from ATI – link 1, link 2.

ABIT’s nForce4-based AN8-SLI comes with solid performance, stability and overclocking features at a decent middle ground price tag. As an air cooled overclockers motherboard, this board does its job remarkably well – link.

Asus’s A8R-MVP XPress Crossfire edition offers ATI’s Crossfire with ULI’s south bridge, therefore solving USB nagging problems. At a price near $100 ATI can smile again – review.

Asus’s A8N-VM CSM Micro ATX motherboard is based on the nVidia GeForce 6100/nForce410 integrated GPU chipset, and includes high definition audio. The performance is adequate for how most will use this board (no overclocking), and has some advantageous features for building a Media Center PC or HTPC, as well as good upgrade options. Time will tell if it is a competitive performer compared to other 6150/430 choices – review.

Asus’s A8N32-SLI Deluxe is a superb mainboard, free from any obvious drawbacks – review.

Gigabyte’s GA-K8N51GMF-9 mATX motherboard with onboard video supports a plethora of features despite its small form-factor and low price, and is an excellent solution for anybody who is looking for basic functionality (not serious gaming) or a system at the lowest cost possible with onboard video – review.

Foxconn’s 6150K8MA-8EKRS has all the aspects of a great motherboard. The nVidia C51 chipset is excellent and gives good general processor and memory performance, and if you are aiming for a HTPC, the passive cooled chipset means no noise and with the on board video and TV Out being available you do not need a video card – review.

ASRock’s 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard with ULI Northbridge and Southbridge is definitely a buy, at apx. $70, for enthusiasts and gamers on a budget that are looking for a transitional motherboard for their AGP to PCI Express migration as well as to AMD’s upcoming next generation processors – review.

ABIT’s AN8 SLI motherboard provides a top of the line performance board at an entry level price – review.

– Intel

Intel expects multi-core processors to prevail over single-core chips in Q3 2006 – link.

Intel’s upcoming 65nm generation chip process has already has reached yields of a mature process, the company claims – link.

Can “Viiv” do for living room PCs what Centrino did for notebooks? Maybe, but the markets are very different – link.

Intel reaffirms intention to make chips using 32nm process technology in 2009 – link.

Why does Intel stink at PC games? – link.

Intel lost the plot in 2005 – link.

Intel Yonah performance preview - Part I: The Exclusive First Look at Yonah, Part II. Discussion here.

First Look at Intel Presler Pentium Extreme Edition 955 65nm CPU leaves a very favorable impression performance-wise, although the high heat dissipation and power consumption of the NetBurst technology remains. At least Intel’s transition to 65nm impresses, thus far – review 1, review 2, review 3.

– Other

Via announces that it will release the CN700 IGP chipset, which supports machines using its low powered C7 CPU, early 2006. IGN core includes S3 Graphics Unichrome Pro and supports DDR and DDR2 – link.

Via finally releases a Nano-ITX motherboard, with the first sightings in Japan’s Akiba (with pictures). Nano-ITX (specifications) offers the smallest “standard” boards to date, and tightly integrates a new onboard UniChrome video chipset with component HDTV support, a re-designed “Luke” CoreFusion CPU, and SATA support. It retains the AES/PadLock, while offering new powersaving features. It is an amazing level of integration in a tiny package. The problem is price.

Sun’s UltraSparc T1, the next generation server CPU family which focuses almost solely on Thread Level Parallelism, is little less than a revolution in the server world – review.

Graphics

AnandTech’s December video card price guide – link.

The year 2005 in Graphics – review.

ATI year in review 2005 – link. nVidia year in review 2005 – link.

The Inquirer guide to desktop graphic chips shows ATI’s X1300 Pro 256MB PCIe a great value buy in the lower-mid-range at apx. $95 – link.

Tom’s Hardware rounds up 25 PCIe VGA cards (21 single-board, 4 SLI configurations). 7 benchmarks are run at various screen resolutions and different quality settings – link.

Graphics card premiums overprice OpenGL functionality – link.

Mainstream video viewing quality shootout of ATI’s Radeon X800 vs. nVidia’s GeForce 6600 and XGI’s Volari 8300 indicates that XGI’s card is clear choice for video quality in that $50 price range, and that ATI has some programming work to do – link.

S3’s Chrome S27 suffers performancewise vs. ATI’s or nVidia’s offerings, but is much cheaper – review.

XGI’s Volari 8300 GPU is intended to compete in the entry level market with a handful of HTPC-oriented capabilities that should make it stand out, including low power useage which means low cooling requirements. Its capabilities make it a viable low-cost option for users assembling a HTPC or 2D workstation machine – review.

nVidia’s GeForce 6800 GS is a very worthy, if somewhat late, addition to nVidia’s performance line-up in the mid-range price/performance segment – review.

Sapphire’s X800 GTO2 is an amazingly overclockable budget graphics card, but you might have trouble finding one – review.

ATI’s Catalyst 5.13 driver and a Cyberlink H.264, the codec of choice for both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, decoder offload some of the most CPU intensive tasks for media PCs today onto their GPUs – link 1, link 2. All 13 sets of ATI Catalyst drivers of 2005 including the latest 5.13 compared – link.

ATI’s All-In-Wonder 2006 PCIe video card is based on the X1300 series of cards, making it aimed at more budget-based users – link. Discussion here.

ATI Radeon X800 GTO mini roundup of mid-range cards: Sapphire, Connect3D, and PowerColor – link.

Memory, storage

How much RAM do you really need? – link.

OCZ’s EL DDR PC3200 Gold GX XTC 2GB memory modules are up there performancewise with the better memory modules and will not cost you the earth – review.

1GB CompactFlash media roundup gives not to Transcend’s 80x model – link.

ATP’ Toughdrive 1GB USB thumb drive has a tough rubber housing designed to withstand extreme conditions including water resistance, is by far the fastest USB drive they have tested, and is cheap – review.

Crucial’s Gizmo! 2GB USB thumb drive is capable and fast, and carries a premium price – review.

HyperOs’s HyperDrive III is solid state “hard” disk product fits into a 5.25” drive bay and will host up to 16 GB of memory. It is very fast, and very expensive – review.

– Hard Disk Drives

Seagate is deemed to be among America’s best managed companies by Forbes. CEO sees great growth opportunity in immediate future – link. Seagate to acquire Maxtor – link 1, link 2.

Hybrid hard disks and beyond – link.

AnandTech’s December storage price guide – link.

Anticipate hard drive problems early with SpinRite v6.0 – link.

Comparing the performance numbers of an ATA-6 2.5” notebook HDD with 8MB of cache against that of a similarly equipped 16MB cache buffer HDD – link.

In a battle of mammoth HDDs (400GB and up), the drive with the SATA1 interface comes out on top in most tests – link.

Two new Seagate Momentus HDD family members add to the number of attractive 2.5” offerings out there – review 1, review 2.

Seagate’s Barracuda 7200.9 HDDs, which incorporate all the SATA 2.5 draft spec’s standard and optional features across the entire line, show somewhat mixed results in testing – review.

Vantec’s Avox jukebox converts a 2.5” laptop HDD into a portable media player. It comes with a remote control and upscale’s low resolution video to full screen – review.

SPire’s Gigapod III external drive enclosure is cool, quiet, affordable, mobile and user friendly – review.

– Optical Drives

Plextor’s SATA DVD writer is pitted against against a much cheaper Pioneer PATA DVR110a, and ends up looking bad, performancewise and valuewise – link.

Pioneer unveils Blu-ray DVD drive for PCs – link 1, link 2.

Cases, power supplies, cooling

How to choose the perfect case and PSU for your home-theater PC build-it project – link.

– Cases

Four “either way” ATX or BTX cases made a good impression – link.

NZXT’s Lexa aluminium case comes with three blue LED 120mm fans plus one 80mm one, looks great, and includes some notable features like removable dust filters and a carrying strap – review.

Thermalrock’s Eclipse all-aluminum mid-tower ATX case is very lightweight and looks nice, but does not excell at keeping its interior cool – review.

Arctic Cooling’s Selentium family of mid-tower cases live up to their name, at a price and with some limitation on the power of the system – review.

Cooler Master’s Centurion 531 case lives up to Cooler Master’s reputation for quality fit, finish, and features, while offering users a traditional mid-tower layout with a classy extruded-aluminum front panel, and even includes a very quiet intake fan. It is also an excellent value at the price ($60 for windowless version with no PSU) – review.

– Power Supply Units

Coolmax’s CX1 PSU series comes rated at 600w and with a 120mm fan, is SLI compliant, very quiet, has loads of connectors and provides an excellent performance. Price remains to be seen – link.

Thermaltake’s Purepower power station 520w Modular PSU looks like another winner – review.

Antec’s NeoHE 550 550W PSU has a high efficiency rating, sleek design, fully-sleeved modular connectors, and support for all the latest PC components available today, with low heat and noise … all in all one of the best PSUs ever reviewed – review.

MGE’s XG Magnum 500 is a silent intelligent PSU that dissipates heat via a massive heat pipe system with a protruding copper radiator, instead of the usual large fan. It run silently under the administered stress test – review.

5 PSUs from Foxconn and Hiper Group tested, with generally satisfying results – link.

– Cooling Solutions

Extreme Cooling Technologies’ Prometeia Mach II GT phase-change cooling system brings new level of performance at overclocking, absolutely unattainable with the traditional cooling methods – review.

Nexus’s AOP-6400 CPU cooler is rated at 19dB sound pressure level (very low) and is rated only up to Athlon 64 3800+ CPUs (2.4GHz) – link.

Arctic Cooling’s Freezer 64 Pro is one of the most impressive coolers available today, and perhaps the quietest, at a great price. The fans will be sold separately as case fans – review.

Zalman’s CNPS9500 CPU cooler is beautiful and effective but huge, meaning it cannot be used in SFF machines – review.

Arctic Cooling’s Arctic Fan 12 is a very low vibration and noise, high flow case fan family. It looks pretty cool (“retro”) too – review.

Thermalright’s V-1 VGA cooler works very well, but offers a poor value proposition – link.

Miscellaneous components and periferals

Sound Blaster X-Fi sets a new standard for PC audio – link.

Denon’s S-301 is a high end sound system aimed at people looking for a clean neat compact solution to couple with their TV – review.

A beginners’ guide to basic home networking and file sharing – link.

Linksys ADSL2MUE Ethernet ADSL modem is very basic but versatile, and its bridge mode should avoid a lot of the problems with older broadband routers, where the router cannot cope with other types of IP PassThrough mode – review.

Logitech’s QuickCam Fusion is one of the highest-quality offerings the reviewer has tried, and also one of the most expensive at $100 – review.

D-Link’s DCS-900 IP camera appliance (can be used to set up a permanent web cam) is a bargain – review.

Sub-$40 mobile phone handset market is heating up – link.

Zen Photo gives iPod Nano run for its money and more – review.

iPAQ rx1950 PDA offers many features at a decent price – review.

Creative HN 700 noise canceling headphones effectively block out jet noise – review.

LCD panels with response time compensation: 7 monitors reviewed – link.

Epson’s Perfection 3490 Photo scanner is ideal for scanning multi-page text documents, magazine illustrations for the Web, and standard photographs, but not for digitizing positive and negative films. The price is right – link.

Epson’s Stylus Photo RX520 multi-function device which can scan both transparencies and normal photos and its printing quality is amongst the best for MFP’s, and it is cheap – link.