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.