Sometimes, computer parts are also about beauty, not only performance, but when you have a good looking piece of hardware that's decently priced and offers outstanding performance for its class, only then you can say you got the best bang for your buck. Why am I saying this? After all, some computer cases don't allow you to see what's inside, and if you're not building your PC by yourself, you may not even get to see what's inside. Well, that's a reason to become a computer enthusiast, the inner beauty of the machine, and today we'll talk about the beauty below, the Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GT Extreme Version video card.


As you probably know already, the 9600 GT is based on NVIDIA's G94 graphics core, basically a slightly improved version of the G92 used on the 8800 GT. This Leadtek incarnation of the 9600 GT board has the same PCB layout as the GeForce 8800 GT, so if you want to change the cooling system of this card, you could easily use coolers designed for the 8800 GT. These being said, let's see why did those guys at Leadtek call this card "Extreme" - I guess you imagine it already, but there are a few things that need to be said, so here we go...

NVIDIA's standard 9600 GT is on par with the 8800 GT in most tests, so hear this - Leadtek decided to give its card a boost, so they pushed up the core from 650MHz to 720MHz, while the memory runs at 1625MHz. The feature list of the card is pretty long, including built-in HDMI, HDCP, solid aluminum capacitors, PureVideo HD, dual-link DVI, and more.

Finally, if the above is not enough, you could also take your time to compare what other reviewers think, and then decide. After all, prices are dropping, and now is the right time to get a new video card, and if you don't want to empty your pockets, the Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GT Extreme could be the perfect choice!

Remember the times when S3 was king of the hill in the PC graphics arena? The Virge series was sort of a precursor for the 3Dfx’s 3D accelerators. Those were some foggy times in the evolution of 3D graphics, but after the emergence of 3Dfx and NVIDIA, S3 somehow slipped into a dark era of low-end graphics solutions. However, it managed to survive by teaming up with VIA. The last decade has seen some futile attempts at decent mid-range solutions from S3, but nothing really set the market on fire. Now, S3 is planning to take over the IGP market.

S3’s latest GPU, Chrome 430GT, proved to have a balanced performance/cost ratio, but S3 isn’t happy with the results. Just recently, it has announced the 4300E Embedded multi-media graphics processor that is supposed to outperform the competition by as much as 30%.

The upcoming 4300E is made in the 65nm manufacturing process and it can be clocked at frequencies ranging from 300MHz to 600MHz. Being an embedded solution, it only supports up to 256MB of either GDDR2 or GDDR3 memory and comes with features such as DirectX 10.1 support, OpenGL 2.1, PCI-Express 2.0 and an advanced high quality programmable video core that should lower the usage of the CPU when users start running HD video content.

The 4300E still pays tribute to the old CRT technology as it integrates two analog RAMDACs : one for CRT connectivity and a dual-link DVI/HDMI with HDPC as well as dual channel LVDS transmitters. Compatibility shouldn’t be a problem because S3 already took care of a new set of drivers that works with Windows XP and Vista.

The new S3 IGP is scheduled to appear in a motherboard near you sometime June 2008.

Intel's Atom processor will probably change the mobile world as we know it, but for Intel, it will surely bring in a steady and juicy cash flow for a pretty long period, if the processor manufacturer plays its cards right. Anyway, since there are still some details to be revealed regarding this processor, especially real-life tests, it was a pleasure for me to find out that results of first tests of this processors started to become public, so let's see what should we expect from the Atom...


Unfortunately, we didn't get out hands on the Atom yet, but those at VR-Zone.com did, and the movie above shows the Little Falls ES mini-ITX solution in action, powered by an Intel Atom processor based on the Diamondville core, with a clock speed of 1.6Ghz, and featuring the Hyperthreading technology.

Incorporating for the first time its own chipset into a mini-ITX solution, it seems Intel managed to pull out a good result - with a 7200rpm 80gb hard drive and a SATA optical drive, the Little Falls ES platform only draws a bit over 32 W... Now, that's what I call energy efficient PC!

Remember the ASUS Eee PC? I am sure you do! After all, it's the UMPC that scared Sony, and it managed to become really popular, despite its various drawbacks, but the good news is that today, ASUSTek confirmed the Eee PC 900, just as promised(). As expected, the new member of ASUS' UMPC family is better than the previous versions, as you're going to see right away...


For most people that liked the Eee PC but thought its display size, storage space, and amount of memory were not enough, the Eee PC 900 should be just great - it comes with the same Intel Celeron M ULV model 353 (900MHz, factory downclocked to 630MHz) and Intel 910 core-logic with built-in graphics core as the current models, but its screen size is now 8.9”, with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels, and features 12G (Windows version) or 20GB (Linux version) of storage, and 1GB of memory, as well as a 1.3MP webcam!

The weight of the UMPC from ASUS is still below 1kg, and the new FingerGlide feature is also a nice addition to it, allowing you zoom in and out of pictures or scroll up and down with just two simple finger movements.

The 12GB model is priced at $636 in Europe, but no information regarding US pricing is available yet.

Several years ago, the most important motherboard chipset makers kept a tight collaboration with Intel and AMD. But at one point, things started to get a little bit out of hand. It’s known that Intel was relying more and more on its own chipsets rather than VIA’s and NVIDIA’s, but AMD clearly needed some helping hand with motherboard chipsets. Nowadays, things are not different at all for Intel, while AMD has slowly started to build its own chipsets, knowing that it can do better than VIA and NVIDIA, especially after it managed to finalize the ATI acquisition.

The upcoming 790GX chipset is AMD/ATI’s in house solution to their Hybrid CrossfireX technology. Weeks away from the official launch, a Chinese website is now releasing some more information about the architecture behind the 790GX. We found out that it supports a local frame buffer, just as the 780G. However, the motherboard integrators didn’t really care about the local frame buffer in the past, because of the increased production cost, so history could repeat as well with the 790GX.

The Chinese source managed to take a closer look at a 790GX-powered Unika motherboard that integrates a DDR2 memory chip from Hynix as a local frame buffer. It’s not much, but in a hybrid configuration it is supposed to add to the overall system performance, as the integrated GPU doesn't have to share system memory in Windows and the frame buffer is faster than sharing system memory when you're playing games using the IGP. Moreover, the 790GX-powered motherboards will include an improved graphics core, supposedly the Radeon HD 3300.

As I previously stated, it looks like we are going to see improved AMD/ATI products more often now, but that doesn’t mean our wallet is going to like this perspective.