Asus Eee Box
Published by Codrut Nistor, on June 23rd, 2008, in the categories: News
Tired of that tiny Asus Eee UMPC, the same computer giving nightmares to Sony ? I love it, but I wouldn't use one. Why? Well, I don't have eagle eyes, and since I like to use bigger fonts...figure that out for yourselves! Even more, I don't have a clear opinion regarding Asus - I've seen a lot of outstanding products from them, but I have also seen (too many) pieces of hardware they should be ashamed of. Anyway, the bottom line is that the Asus Eee family just got a new member, the Asus Eee Box, the desktop counterpart of the Eee PC!
The details are somehow sketchy at this time, but there's enough to get a clear idea, and the design will be one that I love, if it proves that the image above is exactly the Asus Eee Box we're all waiting for. Now, to the technical specifications...
Based on Intel Atom N270 processor, which runs at 1.60GHz, together with an Intel chipset, the Asus Eee Desktop PC will feature 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 80GB hard disk drive, while on the connectivity part we have a Wi-Fi 802.11n controller, Gigabit Ethernet, as well as a card reader. Unfortunately, the Asus Eee Box does not come with any optical disk drive, so you can forget the multimedia part, at least for now. I am looking forward to the day when movies will ship on USB flash drives, instead of DVD discs!
At last, you should know this system comes with Windows XP Home OS, and Asus is going to ship it without a monitor. I hope they are working on some monitor designs to match the one of the Asus Eee Box, and since pricing is still a secret, let's hope for the better!
The details are somehow sketchy at this time, but there's enough to get a clear idea, and the design will be one that I love, if it proves that the image above is exactly the Asus Eee Box we're all waiting for. Now, to the technical specifications...
Based on Intel Atom N270 processor, which runs at 1.60GHz, together with an Intel chipset, the Asus Eee Desktop PC will feature 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 80GB hard disk drive, while on the connectivity part we have a Wi-Fi 802.11n controller, Gigabit Ethernet, as well as a card reader. Unfortunately, the Asus Eee Box does not come with any optical disk drive, so you can forget the multimedia part, at least for now. I am looking forward to the day when movies will ship on USB flash drives, instead of DVD discs!
At last, you should know this system comes with Windows XP Home OS, and Asus is going to ship it without a monitor. I hope they are working on some monitor designs to match the one of the Asus Eee Box, and since pricing is still a secret, let's hope for the better!
Aquagrafx G200
Published by Bogdan Alex, on June 23rd, 2008, in the categories: Coolers
The standard coolers recommended by NVIDIA for its latest GTX 200 series might not prove efficient enough for those of you who like too keep things quiet inside you PC rig. Since water coolers are becoming more and more affordable, maybe it’s time we made the jump for these improved solutions.
Among the first to provide water cooling solutions for NVIDIA’s new generation is the German PC cooling specialist Aqua-Computer with their aquagrafx G200 water block.
According to Aqua-Computer, the cooler is produced from highly purified electrolysis copper and provides an extremely high cooling capacity. The block comes with 20mm broad channels inside, which provide an extremely low flow resistance. The copper plate of the cooler is around 8 mm thick and weighs 660 g. The German company further explains that the block itself is CNC milled from a solid raw part of almost 2.2 kg of copper.
The GPU area is covered by an optimized cooling surface which offers around 25% more surface than the one used by other companies. The block covers all the vital components of the card, including the GPU, video chip, RAMs and voltage regulators. Altogether, 17 components on the graphics card are cooled by the aquagrafx G200. Aqua-Computer also specifies that the water block connections are G 1/4".
The aquagrafx G200 will cost around 94.90 Euros and it will be available starting June 25 2008.
Among the first to provide water cooling solutions for NVIDIA’s new generation is the German PC cooling specialist Aqua-Computer with their aquagrafx G200 water block.
According to Aqua-Computer, the cooler is produced from highly purified electrolysis copper and provides an extremely high cooling capacity. The block comes with 20mm broad channels inside, which provide an extremely low flow resistance. The copper plate of the cooler is around 8 mm thick and weighs 660 g. The German company further explains that the block itself is CNC milled from a solid raw part of almost 2.2 kg of copper.
The GPU area is covered by an optimized cooling surface which offers around 25% more surface than the one used by other companies. The block covers all the vital components of the card, including the GPU, video chip, RAMs and voltage regulators. Altogether, 17 components on the graphics card are cooled by the aquagrafx G200. Aqua-Computer also specifies that the water block connections are G 1/4".
The aquagrafx G200 will cost around 94.90 Euros and it will be available starting June 25 2008.
Improved NVIDIA GP-GPUs
Published by Bogdan Alex, on June 22nd, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
ATI released its new FireStream GP-GPU and now it’s NVIDIA’s turn to announce their improved general purpose processing architectures.
According to Digitimes, immediately after ATI announced the FireStream 9250 model, NVIDIA revealed at the new Tesla 10-series computing solutions at the same International Supercomputing Conference. NVIDIA points out that the new products enable developers to solve computational challenges in a common and familiar development environment (mostly C-based) that scales effortlessly from one generation to the next with no re-coding required.
The new Tesla array includes the Tesla S1070 1U computing system and the Tesla C1060 computing processor and delivers up to four Teraflops per 1U system, plus there’s additional support for IEEE 754 arithmetic, 16GB of memory per 1U system and more efficient TDP specs.
The new Tesla family is compatible with the CUDA C-language development software for parallel computing, thus extending the reach of GPUs to any computationally intensive applications requiring double precision accuracy. NVIDIA boasts a bit, stating that over 70 million CUDA enabled GPUs have been sold into the market and over 60,000 downloads of the C-compiler have been recorded through the community web site.
Tesla S1070 1U and C1060 computing processor boards will cost $7999 and $1699 respectively and will be available starting August 2008.
According to Digitimes, immediately after ATI announced the FireStream 9250 model, NVIDIA revealed at the new Tesla 10-series computing solutions at the same International Supercomputing Conference. NVIDIA points out that the new products enable developers to solve computational challenges in a common and familiar development environment (mostly C-based) that scales effortlessly from one generation to the next with no re-coding required.
The new Tesla array includes the Tesla S1070 1U computing system and the Tesla C1060 computing processor and delivers up to four Teraflops per 1U system, plus there’s additional support for IEEE 754 arithmetic, 16GB of memory per 1U system and more efficient TDP specs.
The new Tesla family is compatible with the CUDA C-language development software for parallel computing, thus extending the reach of GPUs to any computationally intensive applications requiring double precision accuracy. NVIDIA boasts a bit, stating that over 70 million CUDA enabled GPUs have been sold into the market and over 60,000 downloads of the C-compiler have been recorded through the community web site.
Tesla S1070 1U and C1060 computing processor boards will cost $7999 and $1699 respectively and will be available starting August 2008.
New P45 Motherboards
Published by Bogdan Alex, on June 21st, 2008, in the categories: Mainboards, Uncategorized
I finally decided to buy some new components. I set my eyes on an Intel X48-powered motherboard from Asus which I thought would be one of the most feature-packed model out there, but it turns out that it’s already outdated. Motherboard manufacturers have started to come up with models powered by the bran new Intel P45 chipset, and now I’m confused again.
CPU3D reports that one of the best Intel-based motherboards available could prove to be ASRock’s P45R2000-WiFi because it is currently the only model to support FSB2000 MHz (via OC). As far as memory support goes, this model supports both DDR2 and DDR3 modules. DDR3 modules are becoming pretty affordable these days and soon, the DDR2 memory support will be discontinued.
Other standard features that come with the P45R2000-WiFi motherboard include the latest PCIE2.0 specifications for improved graphics performance, Dual Gigabit LAN, free bundled WiFi-802.11g module, ALC890 Audio Codec for 110dB sound quality and all solid capacitors design. There’s no support for SLI configurations. The ASRock motherboard has two PCIE2.0 graphics slots which allow users to choose x16 for single card or x8/x8 for Cross Fire.
The P45R2000-WiFi motherboard seems to be offering a very good price/performance ratio, as online retailers have it for around $150.
CPU3D reports that one of the best Intel-based motherboards available could prove to be ASRock’s P45R2000-WiFi because it is currently the only model to support FSB2000 MHz (via OC). As far as memory support goes, this model supports both DDR2 and DDR3 modules. DDR3 modules are becoming pretty affordable these days and soon, the DDR2 memory support will be discontinued.
Other standard features that come with the P45R2000-WiFi motherboard include the latest PCIE2.0 specifications for improved graphics performance, Dual Gigabit LAN, free bundled WiFi-802.11g module, ALC890 Audio Codec for 110dB sound quality and all solid capacitors design. There’s no support for SLI configurations. The ASRock motherboard has two PCIE2.0 graphics slots which allow users to choose x16 for single card or x8/x8 for Cross Fire.
The P45R2000-WiFi motherboard seems to be offering a very good price/performance ratio, as online retailers have it for around $150.
GeForce 9800 GTX Price Down
Published by Codrut Nistor, on June 19th, 2008, in the categories: Video Cards
I know it sounds incredible, but it's true! The GeForce 9800 GTX cards from NVIDIA are going to become cheaper. In fact, the price is getting close to ridiculous! I know, models for enthusiasts like the BFG 9800 GTX ThermoIntelligence won't get that low for sure, but...
...what else can you say when NVIDIA announces its partners that the recommended prices on the GeForce 9800 GTX, from now on expected to be available for only $199! The main reason behind this is the fact that NVIDIA announced the GeForce 9800 GTX+, a slightly overclocked version of the 9800 GTX, which is planned to go up against the Radeon HD 4850.
The 9800 GTX+ is going to have the core/memory frequencies raised to 738/1836MHz, about 10% higher than the 675/1688MHz default speeds of the 9800 GTX. The price expected for the 9800 GTX+ is $229, and that's it.
Obviously, all this can be described with a single word: lame. I am sure that, if ATI wouldn't have had the HD 48xx breathing down NVIDIA's neck...you know what would have happened, I don't have to say it!
...what else can you say when NVIDIA announces its partners that the recommended prices on the GeForce 9800 GTX, from now on expected to be available for only $199! The main reason behind this is the fact that NVIDIA announced the GeForce 9800 GTX+, a slightly overclocked version of the 9800 GTX, which is planned to go up against the Radeon HD 4850.
The 9800 GTX+ is going to have the core/memory frequencies raised to 738/1836MHz, about 10% higher than the 675/1688MHz default speeds of the 9800 GTX. The price expected for the 9800 GTX+ is $229, and that's it.
Obviously, all this can be described with a single word: lame. I am sure that, if ATI wouldn't have had the HD 48xx breathing down NVIDIA's neck...you know what would have happened, I don't have to say it!
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