Enter X4 9950 Black Edition, 9350e the power saver

Hardware Wibblery The power above and below

AMD, AS WE MENTIONED earlier today, breathed some life in the Phenom CPU family – namely through the X4 9950, X4 9350e and X4 9150e.

Legit Reviews had the 9950 and 9350e on the bench – one, the dread high-end CPU and the other the power-efficient performer. They are quite different in power levels under load (140W vs. 65W). Overclocking isn’t thtat great, which means the only “Black” about the 9950 is possibly getting AMD in the black? They’re both winners, tho’. Don’t discard AMD right away. Catch the review here.

Ars Technica is also reviewing the X4 9350e. As the cheap low-power quad-core that it is, it moves quad-cores into the mainstream with some good points in its favour (price/performance/power). Its greatest virtue is having a matching twin, the 780G chipset, which should help it become a hit with the PC builders. Joel also tried his hand at underclocking to see just how low it could go (although there’s something called Cool’n’Quiet that should rev down your CPU and power consumption by itself, right?). Read it now.

Legion Hardware is redoing its HD4850 vs. 9800GTX face-off by adding a 9800GTX+ to the mess o’ cards. It’s quite shocking how marginal your gains with a 9800GTX+ are, over a 9800GTX and how equal it is to an HD4850, in the end coming down to shelf price, game title or availability. Still, they’re both great buys, says Steven. Read on.

If you enjoy movies on your PC, or have an HTPC plugged into your living room TV, you might want to read this here review. Bit Tech reviews the Pioneer BDC-SO2BK Blu-ray drive. Considering what a BD drive cost a while back, we have to say that 90 quid is quite affordable. Richard’s also got some tips for you to mull on in case you want the full HD experience to run stutter-free. Worth a read.

PC Perspective is plugging in Corsair’s HX1000W modular power supply. It looks like there were two power units built into one case, providing as much juice as you need for heavy-duty gaming rigs. This can support a Quad SLI setup and comes rated at 80+ efficiency, with modular cabling (as the name implies) which also has a second EPS12V cable that drives power to dual-CPU mobos in workstations or servers. Read it here.

Michael, down at Phoronix, the Land of Linux is testing a Super Micro mobo – yes Super Micro, that brand that put out tremendous amounts of workstation/server mobos in past times. The C2SBX+ is an X48-based board with all the bells and whistles that come with the territory – but the companion chip adds PCI-X functionality – now the board was faced-off with a couple of other Bearlakes but tied in performance. However, its price puts it way ahead of the competition: $250. Yeah. Just $250. Tremendous value, right here.

A mad Finn at Metku Mods has tested an OC’d GTX 280, ie: the XFX GTX 280 XXX Edition. The 1.4 billion transistor monster from Nvidia gets a little ahead of its brethren, even though its dressed in a reference cooler (we guess XFX cherry picks the lots). Right now it’s the fastest thing money can buy, until someone launches something faster, that is... So read on. µ

Gigabyte overclocking tourney frenzy

Daily Rounds X58 mobos violated, abused

GIGABYTE HELD A TOURNAMENT in the US this past weekend to figure out who was the most clever overclocker in the land of the free. Now this isn’t a DIY, BYOC deal. Gigabyte supplied most of the hardware – equal for all participants – and each participant had to choose his own cooling system. Most used Liquid Nitrogen to cool the CPUs but the video cards were another matter entirely. They even managed to fry some expensive X58 mobos. The winner got a Gigabyte sponsorship to attend the World Cup in Taiwan, come September. You might think that’s cool (pun intended), so you might want to waltz on over here.

The forest-dwelling, dike-building, tooth-picking Hardware Canucks are reviewing Sapphire’s HD4850. The GPU’s performance has been the subject of many a review, but the software is still flaky, thinks the author. Current Catalyst drivers + hotfix are still a way away from providing stable/optimized performance, but it isn’t enough to stop droves of manic users from buying them. Dam good, he says.

Anandtech has jumped on the launch of the new Phenoms and reviewed the whole bunch right here. The launch has brought about a spate of re-pricing at AMD to fit in the newcomers, making things a bit more attractive on the retail side. Technically, however, the dynamic duo is less than pleased with the fine print. Comparing to its predecessor with non-“e” branding, the 9350e gives up in performance what it gains in power, and even then it’s fickle. Well, it’s a long story, well worth the read.

Tosh started marketing the U300 a couple of years back as a small, full-featured, notebook packing everything you need for gaming, entertainment and hard work. The original was a bit thick and square, the remake is much sharper - as you can see in InsideHW’s review here – but is slightly lacking in power. Not the best buy, thinks Sasa, but then again it’s only about 700 €urobucks. The U300 series has definitely taken a turn for the cheap.

HardOCP is doing some research on the new RV770’s power figures. They’ve completed their HD 4850 / 4870 review with the stats you can find standalone on this page. We must confess we’re quite surprised with the results: the HD 4870 draws more power than the GTX 280 OC, contrary to the popular wisdom. This’ll make for interesting reading.

Plastic toy jokes aside, we (the PC crowd) have always envied the design and “cool” factor that makes its way into Apple’s peripherals. And the Tech Lounge is reviewing the Apple Wireless Keyboard. Sleek, slim and stunning, we’d say. Brushed aluminium, and custom sized, the keyboard oozes quality and typing goodness (although Max says there’s a learning curve). Under OS X it’s great, under Windows... err... so-and-so... read it here.

Long time no see ... TV cards for the PC. Yeah, those. Again. Tech Power Up picked up a Powercolor TV Wonder 600 (PCIe x1) and put it through its test bench. We don’t pay much attention to TV cards these days, as video streaming has taken the lead, but if you’ve got an HTPC and want some recording done, it’s still a good proposition. The TV Wonder 600 is a hybrid tuner for both DVB-T TV and Radio, FM and analog TV. Get a shot of nostalgia, right here.

Tech Reviews in Old Blighty has a review of the Dutch-engineered Nexus HOC 9000 CPU cooler. This is an attempt to make a really silent high-performance cooler – using “heatpipe on CPU” technology, something already used in the S1283 from Xigmatek. Installation was frustrating, though, and it wasn’t as silent as desired. Good review, right here. µ

IBM auto delete is a sound idea

IBM BOFFINS in India have apparently developed technology which automatically indentifies and then disguises sensitive information in audio recordings.

The technology, developed in Big Blue Brother's India Research Laboratory (IRL), is purportedly especially handy for call centers that record conversations between customers and outsourced call centre workers.

IBM’s director of IRL, Guruduth Banavar, told PC world that the new technology used speech analytics as well as metadata in order to track down bits in the recording with sensitive information like a customer’s credit card number, PIN number, ID number, etc. Once it found the relevant audio segments, the technology could then cleverly disguise the secretive bits with tasteful white noise, elegant silence, or a sleek announcement noting that “the information you are not about to hear has been edited”.

Apparently the technology is still only in its pilot phase, within the company itself, and it may be a little while yet before it gets itself ‘outsourced to India’.

But call centres aren’t the only place IBM hopes to be able to deploy its new ‘delete’ tech. The company also thinks it could do some healthy business by applying it to other areas like medical diagnosis and to disguise recorded information used for training purposes.

We think that this all sounds a bit [This information has been deleted for security reasons]. µ

Mozilla gets into Guinness Book of Records

Most downloads for a flaming mammal

THE OUTFIT which markets the Firefox web browser, the Mozzarella Foundation, has heard from record keepers that it now holds the world record for the largest number of software downloads in a 24-hour period.

Guinness officials have decided that the final 8,002,530 downloads for Firefox 3.0, which took place last month, was indeed a world record.

A big cheese in Mozzarella's marketing department, Paul Kim said that the enthusiasm and creativity of Firefox fans was the key to making this happen.

Gareth Deaves of Guinness World Records said getting that many downloads down the wire, and getting enough Firebadger fans to do it within the first 24 hours, was no small feat.

The official figure was confirmed after logs from download servers were audited.

According to the Beeb, the actual certificate will be presented by Guinness World Records in London next week.

At their busiest the servers were handling more than 9,000 downloads per minute and it took only five hours for Version 3.0 downloads to exceed the 1.6 million set by Firefox 2.0 in October 2006.

Firebadger has 19 per cent of market share making it the second most popular browser after Microsoft's Internet Exploder. µ

Google keeps search code secret

Viacom told to go forth and multiply

A FEDERAL Judge has told Viacom that it cannot have access to Google's secret search code as part of the evidence needed for its $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the search outfit.

US District Judge Louis Stanton said it was a trade secret and could not be revealed without Google going down the gurgler.

He said that placing such a vital asset in the paws of the great unwashed merely to allay speculation was unfair.

The judge also refused to let Viacom's have a look under the bonnet of Google's Video Identification Tool, which helps notify Google of copyright infringement.

The judge did allow Viacom to take the records of every video watched by Youtube users, including their login names and IP addresses.

This means that anyone who posted a video on Youtube that Viacom thinks infringed its copyright could be taken to the cleaners.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has called foul, saying that the ruling ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act and threatens to expose deeply private information. µ

CrossfireX: 2560x1600 gameplay becomes a reality

YUP. IT’S THERE in big red letters, it’s the “AMD ATI Radeon 4850/4870 CrossfireX” review at Guru3D. Hilbert’s lost it again – high powered graphics have that effect on him... Anyway, what’s come to light, lately, is the high power consumption of the 4800 series (now double-up on the cards and imagine), and the irregular driver performance. You can see a broad spectrum of results, but when Hilbert gets CrossfireX to work, it works great. But do put things in perspective when reading: with the latest generation of graphics cards working in dual-GPU setups, you’ll be looking at buying a 30-inch LCD for 2560x1600 gameplay. Read it here.

XS Reviews is cracking open the Zalman GS1000 computer case, targeted at just about anyone who wants to build a supercomputer at home. It supports E-ATX and very long PCI cards and has hot-swappable bays for HDDs. Lots of space inside, if you’re “just” using a standard ATX mobo, but the panels are a bit dodgy, thinks the author. Not a snip at £100, but if Zalman could swap out those panels with something better, they’d have a winner. Read on.

A few years ago we were hack-napped off to a press conference abroad just to see how Philips would conquer the world of mobile telephony. Some 18 months later, Philips withdrew from the market, unable to compete with the big names and (our personal opinion) mostly due to their utterly rubbish user interface. Now Philips is reviving the brand (Xenium 9@9) in China with the brand new X800. ePrice in Taiwan has the review. The X800 is a full touchscreen design (no, you won’t have nightmares about the old Xeniums) and it looks like something out of HTC’s workshop, to be honest. Careful when reading the page, it didn’t play nice with Googlenglish, but you’ll get the gist (and the photos).

Andrew at Tweak Town took some time to write a guide on how to replace the heatspreaders on your RAM. Naturally it’s one of the warranty-voiding themes, but if you’re in need of improving cooling, it’s a necessary evil. Andrews outlines three basic methods to do this (hot, cold, lukewarm), but it all comes down to be REALLY careful with sharp metallic objects in close proximity of a PCB. Let loose the mad aussie scientist in you.

T-break had a party with the ECS P45T-A Black Edition. ECS isn’t really known as a top grade mobo maker, but it doesn’t fall behind the competition feature wise with this one. The board supports Crossfire, but it’ll break down the lanes into 2x8 as per the P45 specs, but when you try your hand at an overclock, Abbas thinks you’ll be left wanting. The “Black Edition” brings to mind ideas of modding, overclocking and serious tweaking. That isn’t the case, it seems. Good price, tho’. Read on.

Tosh has hit the Portégè brand with its shrink ray and launched the G810. It’s no longer a notebook, as it were, it’s a Windows Mobile 6.0 smartphone with everything touchscreen. It’s targeted at the same market as the HTC Touch Cruise, but you really can’t avoid comparing the details with the iPhone. It’s HSDPA enabled and even includes GPS functionality. The only real thing going against it is the slow speed of the image capture (slow flash, we guess). $550 will buy you one. Read the review here.

Hardware Zone is gobsmacked by Gigabyte’s most extreme P45 mobo – the aptly named GA-EP45T-EXTREME. This board has it all, it seems, even a waterblock on the northbridge that runs liquid cooling to the southbridge and the rows of capacitors. It also allows you to stick in 3 ATI cards and is populated by a bevy of LEDs that alert you about your overclocking misdeeds. It’s only a preview, but it’s tasty.

Microsoft launches Office rental deal

THIS MONTH MICROSOFT will launch an annual subscription offer aimed at consumers covering Microsoft Office and other applications, in partnership with US computer and electronics retailer Circuit City.

The consumer rental bundle, called Equipt, will include a copy of the Home Office suite - consisting of Word, Excel and Powerpoint - plus Windows Live Onecare, Messenger, and Photo Gallery software and services. Onecare provides a set of PC security and optimisation tools that can be accessed online over the Interwibble.

A subscription will cost $69.99 per year and will licence the products to be used on up to three PCs. Punters will automatically receive software updates, assuming that the company releases any.

Microsoft has offered enterprise customers software subscription plans for several years. For business users such programmes offer the advantages of automatic software updates and predictable costs. The Vole hopes consumers will buy Equipt for the same reasons.

For about ten years, give or take a few, Microsoft could pretty much count on most business and home users to upgrade to its new releases of both Windows and Office every two to three years. However, as its software products have matured such that successive versions aren't as attractive to provide bug fixes and new, useful features, now Microsoft is trying to convert as many of its customers as possible to an annual software rental model.

To the extent the Vole's customers fall for this, it can start collecting a continuing stream of revenue without having to develop new application capabilities and features or fix any but the most crippling and annoying software bugs. It's passive income at high monopoly rents.

Many casual Office application users don't use more than the most basic features, manage their PCs by a default policy of benign neglect, and don't engage in PC instant messaging or collect photo albums on their PCs.

Since the Home version of MS Office sells for only $112, such users might not see compelling value in renting Equipt for a $69.99 annual fee. µ

Vista replacing XP, not growing

THERE WAS DISSAPOINTMENT in Redmond last night as the latest market share figures show that Vole's Vista OS has seen a measly 2.56 per cent increase in market share over the last year.

Generally Windows' overall June total was slightly down 2.45 percentage points from the year before, indicating that Vista was merely replacing XP, not adding to Microsoft's share.

Apple's Mac OS X also seemed to take a healthy share of XP's demise. Its market share has increased by nearly 32 per cent. It now holds 7.94 per cent of the operating systems. A year ago, Mac OS X's usage share stood at 6.03 per cent.

Linux grew by 18 per cent, and has 0.88 per cent of the online operating system market.

All the gains have be achieved by carving up the corpses of XP and Windows 2000.

XP dropped by a full percentage point and Windows 2000 is now found on 2.11 per cent of online operating systems. µ