EVGA Ships Hydro Copper Water Block for GTX 470

California based EVGA has started selling its Hydro Copper water-blocks for GeForce GTX 470.





Manufactured by Swiftech, the Hydro Copper water-block features a chrome plated electrolyticC100 copper base plate, a 0.6 x 0.6 mm thin pin matrix, a heat-pipe(joining the power mosfet heat-sink), and supports both 1/2” and 3/8”high-flow fittings. The sleek full cover water-block, compatible with2-way, 3-way and 4-way SLI setups, is able to cool the GPU, I/O chips,VREG area and memory modules. They can bepurchased now from EVGA for USD 139.99,


News via [Softpedia]

Dell Alienware M17x sporting Intel Sandy Bridge and AMD Mobility Radeon 6900 surfaces

Just a couple of weeks ago, a few laptops from Acer,Gateway and Lenovo running Sandy Bridge were discovered. Today, we are seeing another Sandy Bridge laptop, the Dell Alienware M17x refresh.

The updated laptop uses anew Core i7-2720QM (4C/8T) 2.2GHz processor and a not-seen-before AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6900 discrete GPU. This combinationproduced a score of 20,155 in Futuremark's 3DMark06.

In comparison, a slightly faster i7-2730QM 2.3GHz paired with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M racks up a score of about 17,000.

Left side of a refreshed Dell Alienware.

The right side.

And an overview; we see that the upcoming Alienware has a few subtle changes to its appearance.

Enermax Refreshes MODU82+, PRO82+ and LibertyECO PSU Series

Enermax hasupdated its MODU82+*, PRO82+* and LibertyECO* line-up of PSUs,offering enchanced features such as 6+2-pin (8-pin) PCIe powerconnectors, HeatGuard, extended CPU12V power cables and CordGuard clips.

HeatGuard dissipates “leftover” heat in the PSU bykeeping the cooling fan operational up to 60 seconds after shut down,whilst CordGuard makes cable management less of a hassle by keeping thepower cord firmly in place. In line with Enermax’s 20th anniversarycelebrationw, these PSUs will also be bundled with a 120mm Twister casefan (while stocks last).


*List of Updated PSUs

625WMODU82+ II425W, 525W, 625W PRO82+ II 500W, 600W LibertyECO II
News via [Techconnect]

ELSA GLADIAC 880 Series

The well-known graphics boards manufacturer, ELSA Technology Inc. justannounced the new generation graphics boards – ELSA GLADIAC™ 880GTX and ELSAGLADIAC™ 880GTS, powered by lastest generation NVIDIA Geforce™ 8800 graphicsprocessing units.

World’s first DX 10 graphics board
The new generation graphics boards – ELSA GLADIAC™ 880 GTX and ELSA GLADIAC™880GTS fully support Microsoft® DirectX® 10 with Shader Model 4.0 to deliverunparalleled levels of graphics realism and film-quality effects. ELSA GLADIAC™880 series support several new technologies. For example, NVIDIA unifiedarchitecture dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex,physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering up to 2x the gaming performanceof prior generation graphics boards.

ELSA GLADIAC™ 880 series with NVIDIA Lumenex™ Engine which support 16xAnti-aliasing and 128-bit floating point HDR, deliver stunning image quality andfloating point accuracy at ultra-fast frame rates. One more special technologyis NVIDIA Quantum Effects™ which enables a new level of physics effects to besimulated and rendered on the GPU so that CPU is able to run the game engine andAI. In the new generation, such lots of new technologies are created fordelivering incredible image quality and improving overall gameplay toward users.ELSA would like to through ELSA GLADIAC™ 880 series bring you an outstandingtrue-to-life gaming experience.

Ultimate home theater experience on PCs
With NVIDIA PureVideo™ technology, ELSA GLADIAC™ 880 series have hardwareacceleration for decoding H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 movies that can deliverlifelike images and up to six times the detail of standard DVD movies. Dedicatedvideo processor offloads the CPU and 3D engine of complex video tasks, andprovides a higher quality movie experience. Moreover, post-processing supportincluding advanced de-interlacing, scaling, noise reduction and edge enhancementprovides spectacular picture clarity and detail.

ELSA GLADIAC™ 880GTX and ELSA GLADIAC™ 880GTS provide world-class TV-outfunctionality via Composite, S-Video, Component, or DVI connections and supportHD resolutions up to 1080p depending on connection type and TV capability.Through these new technologies and advanced components, ELSA GLADIAC™ 880 seriescan let you experience enjoyment of home theater on your PC.

DisplayPort 1.1; Single Connector Replace All

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced today that itsmembership has approved version 1.1 of the DisplayPort™ interface standard foruse in new designs of flat panel displays, projectors, PCs and CE devices.

DisplayPort 1.1 gives manufacturers of LCD panels, monitors, graphics cards, PCchipsets, projectors, peripherals, components, and consumer electronics a nextgeneration digital interface that is designed to replace LVDS, DVI, andeventually VGA. DisplayPort provides the ability to connect to both internal andexternal displays with a common digital interface. This common interfacecapability means that DisplayPort can carry pixels directly from any displaysource to any LCD panel, simplifying the design complexity that is presenttoday. As presented at CES 2007, a DisplayPort Interoperability Guideline isnearing completion that recommends best practices for providing DVI and HDMIconnectivity via the DisplayPort connector and simple cable adapters.

DisplayPort 1.1 adds support for High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)version 1.3. HDCP support enables viewing of protected content from Blu-ray andHD-DVD optical media over DisplayPort 1.1 connections.

DisplayPort 1.1 provides for low voltage and low power operation, and enablesimproved interoperability and reduced EMI through its unique embedded clockarchitecture. Significant advantages over DVI and VGA include a small USB-sizedconnector with available latching, two-way display connectivity, optional audiosupport, higher performance than dual link DVI at 10.8 Gigabits per second, anda unique micro-packet architecture that enables new display features.

“The benefits of version 1.1 are significant, and will encourage adoption ofDisplayPort in new generations of computers and consumer electronics equipment,”said Bill Lempesis, VESA executive director. “Our task groups and committeeswithin VESA worked very hard to ensure that DisplayPort 1.1 satisfies theimportant objectives it is designed for, and as a result, this new version haswidespread support among all the leading computer and consumer electronicssuppliers.”

Available throughout the industry as a free to use, open and extensiblestandard, DisplayPort is expected to accelerate adoption of secure digitaloutputs on PCs, enable higher levels of display performance, and introduce highvolume digital displays that are simpler, thinner, and easier to use than VGA.

DRAM prices drop yet again

According to market research firm iSuppli, a stick of 2GB DDR3 ram now costs US$21 compared to US$44 in June 2010. Similarly, a stick of DDR2 ram has dropped from US$39 to US$21 in the same time period. DDR3 prices are expected to drop at a faster rate as it accounts for 60% of the market leading to an increased supply of DDR3 rams.

PC manufacturers and consumers would also be expected to upgrade the capacity and number of rams, taking advantage of the low ram prices. iSuppli said that DRAM per PC grew by 24% in 2010 and is expected to grow by more than 33% in this year.

Source: Tomshardware.com

Dual-Core Intel Atom Netbooks released

Intel's long awaited mobile dual-core Atom CPU, N550, finally releasesin netbooks today. Some of the designs based on the N550 include Acer,ASUS, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba netbooks. The N550finally brings in DDR3 support, while retains "similar" battery life tothe single core N450. However, Intel lists the supported frequency asonly 667 MHz, even for DDR3, though previously the N550 was expected tosupport 1066 MHz. Perhaps it is a typographical error? The N550 clocksin at 1.5 GHz, only a 166 MHz downclock from the single-core N450. Italso features double the L2 cache - 1MB (512KB per core). Previousinformation suggests a TDP of 8.5W, compared to 5.5W for the N450.However, evened over the entire platform, a 3W increase won't affectbattery life significantly.

The N550 continues to support HyperThreading, feature 4 threads. Performance wise, an average improvement of a whopping 75% is expected over the extremely weak N450.

A dual-core CPU for netbooks has been much anticipated, and the Atom N550 had been scheduled for a Q3 release for a long time. It is finally here. Or is it? Out of the dozen or so design wins, no N550 based netbooks are available in e-tail, yet. Of course, the situation may well change over the coming days, if not hours, and we can expect widespread availability of N550 netbooks. The price premium over N450 based netbooks will be revealed once these netbooks appear on sale.

With AMD's Ontario based netbooks releasing in Q1 2011, and threatening to brush Atom N450 aside, the N550's timely release was vital. However, it still may not be enough. Early benchmarks suggest (possibly nettop version) Ontario may destroy the N550's higher-clocked nettop cousin, D510, by as much as 90%. It is also expected to have a smaller die size, though power consumption has ignited plenty of speculation. Over and above, it will include an on-die DX11 GPU.

Whichever way, the N550 brings a dramatic improvement in Netbook performance, and AMD's first Fusion product - Ontario - promises to take things up another notch. Finally, we can stop worrying about terribly weak single-core netbook CPUs.

Reference: Intel Press Release

Dell stands alone as Supermicro joins AMD

FORMERLY ULTRA LOYAL Intel customer Supermicro has said it will support AMD's Opteron processors, confirming our report several weeks ago.

AMD announced a slew of customers including large OEMs and system integrators which will use its dual core processors.

Supermicro joins Sun, HP, IBM and others in announcing support for the dual core Opteron processors introduced today, with Hewlett Packard confirming the existence of dual server blades it advertised by mistake last week.

Other firms which said they will support dual core Opterons include Cray, Egenera and Dawning.

A Supermicro rep said that his firm had "an optimised product line" to support single and dual core processors from AMD. That, the rep said, was because of "market demand and customer requests".

It does make you wonder how long Dell can stand out against the rest of the OEM mob. It's beginning to look a tad isolated.

Exclusive Additional ULV Ivy Bridge processor unveiled

Weve already seen details of Intels upcoming Core i7-3667U and Core i5-3427U ULV Ivy Bridge processors back in December, but now details of an additional three ULV models have reached us. On top of that, we have details on the programmable TDP of all five ULV models and Intel has clearly allowed for a lot of flexibility for its partners.

Lets start with the programmable TDP of the two models we already know about. The Core i5-3427U at stock 17W TDP will operate at 1.8GHz, but it can go down to 14W and all the way up to 25W. All models can go down in terms of TDP, but not all can go up. Its lowest speed is 800MHz, again something that is a common feature across the entire range, although at 25W TDP it can operate as high as 2.3GHz without going into turbo mode. The Core i7-3667U will be able to operate at speeds of 2.5GHz at a 25W TDP, up from 2GHz at 17W TDP.

As for the new CPU models, at the bottom we have the first Core i3 models in the Ivy Bridge ULV range, the Core i3-3217U. This is a 1.8GHz model with no option to increase the TDP for higher speeds, but again it can be lowered to 14W TDP and speeds of as low as 800MHz. As per all current Core i3 processors, it also lacks turbo boost and as such wont overclock. It also features slightly slower graphics at the top speed compared to the previous two models, as it tops out at 1050MHz rather than 1150MHz. However it does support DDR3 1600MHz memory and it has 3MB of cache.

Next up we have the Core i5-3317U which is a 1.7GHz part, again with no option to increase the TDP, but it has the same low TDP options as the Core i3-3217U. Here were looking at turbo support though at up to 2.4GHz for both cores and 2.6GHz for a single core, making it slightly slower than the Core i5-3427U. The graphics clock is also the same as for the Core i3-3217U, but in this case its unlocked and can be overclocked, although that would be down to the notebook manufacturer to add support for this, so its unlikely that this is something well see implemented in a lot of Ultrabooks.

The third and final new model is the Core i7-3517U, a 1.9GHz part that supports the higher 25W TDP and as such an increased clock speed of up to 2.4GHz. In turbo mode itll go up to 2.8GHz for two cores and 3GHz on a single core. The GPU clock speeds are the same as for the Core i7-3667U and were of course also looking at 4MB of cache here.

Whats interesting is that all the models ending with 17 in the model number appears to be OEM processors for consumer level Ultrabooks and as such lack support for Intel vPro and TXT technology, something the Core i7-3667U and Core i5-3427U offers. The Core i3-3217U also lacks support for the new digital random number generator, VT-d and AES-NI, but this isnt really a big surprise. So there you have it, several new Ultrabook processors are coming, but with the "delay" this means we wont be seeing them in retail products until June or possibly even a little later in the year.

Development of male youth in jeopardy due to video games and pornogprahy

Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the American school system is also one of the lowest ranking of any in the developed world, but is the government to blame or are there other factors that influence how the youth of America develops. That said, a doctor by the name of Phillip Zimbardo and his assistant Nikita Duncan claims that video games and pornography is the one of the main catalyst in the destruction of American youths—males in particular.

The discussion of how video games and pornography are influencing the way American males develop as human beings is as touchy of a topic as it can get. A recent article by gamesindustry.biz clarifies that Zimbardo claims video games and pornography create an “arousal” and “addiction” that make males “risk-averse [and causes them] to shy away from dealing with relationships, school, or work.”

Zimbardo uses examples from recent tragedies that were correlated with gaming to make his argument. One example was the death of Seungseob Lee due to 50 hours of playing Starcraft continuously. Another example is the killing massacre that was carried out by a Norwegian male named Anders Behring Breivik—who played a lot of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

The doctor and his assistant don’t directly blame technology for the problems in male youths, but rather the “misuse” of it.

“Technology is not the issue. Rather, it’s the misuse of technology. There’s a general overuse of video games and porn – especially in social isolation – which is not balanced out by other activities like exercise, face-to-face socialization with peers, or individual time with any kind of male mentor,” Zimbardo was quoted in an interview TED.com.

There’s no doubt that the correlation between video games and porn is present when it comes to troubled youth, but does that mean causation?

Zimbardo continued on in his interview with TED.com to say that “prescription drugs, illegal drugs, and overstimulation from enticing images and games” changes the brains of male youths, and the consequence is that they get “left behind socially, sexually, and financially.”

It seems that Zimbardo and his assistant has a particular section of men – the video game loving and pornography watching ones – all figured out. What about you? Where do you place the significance of video games and pornography in how it shapes young men?

Early build of Windows 7 SP 1 leaked to file sharing websites

Service Packs have been a staple of Windows updates for a long time already, and information about pre-release builds of such updates is so abundant that it might not even be considered as 'news' to most people anymore.

However, it seems that the recently-leaked build for Windows 7 which is currently making its away around file sharing sites right now has a little something different which sets it apart from the usual service packs that Microsoft had been rolling out for older versions of its operating system.

According to Chris123NT of GeekSmack, who had somehow managed to obtain the leaked build and installed it on his computer, the installation was significantly faster than those for Vista, which might be a sign that Microsoft is starting to move away from huge, major service packs in favour of smaller, more regular ones.

And naturally, with smaller and more frequent service pack updates (which will be somewhat similar to the way Mac OS X's point updates work), users might be better protected against security exploits and flaws, since the lead time between one service pack and the next will be significantly shortened.

Also, unlike service packs updates, the one for Windows 7 will display a window indicating that SP1 was successfully installed on the machine as shown above, which for some, might be a good as a quick indicator as to whether SP1 installed correctly or not.

And like always, Windows will display a Service Pack indicator after a successful installation.

To date, there's still no official statement regarding the actual release date for Windows 7 SP1, and considering that it's a leaked, unofficial build, it's still too early to speculate on how the actual release will fare on most Windows 7 machines.

Still, from the looks of it, it does at least seem that Microsoft has been working behind the scenes to ensure that service pack installations for Windows 7are no longer the huge, error-prone processes which some people have come to regard them as.

Source: GeekSmack

*all images are courtesy of GeekSmack

DX10 Ruby Tech Demo For R600

Hexus has gotten a pic of the updated DX10 Ruby tech demo for ATi R600.On the right is the DX9 Ruby tech for X1800/X1900 series. The lips certainlylooks much better in comparison.

DayZ to receive engine overhaul

Dean "Rocket" Halls Arma II mod, DayZ, has been a work in progress for a while now, but it was meant to have a standalone release before the end of the year. This may not happen, explains the developer. Accoirding to Hall, though they are still aiming for a 2012 release, the developers of the mod would not be entirely opposed to pushing the release back, if it meant giving the game a more solid foundation. Hall has stated that short term goals such as meeting a deadline, should not compromise long term goals, such as the overall quality of the game.

One of the reasons there may be a delay, is the extensive overhaul of the game being implemented, most interesting of which is a new engine. Though the engine may not look drastically different from the previous engine, it implements a lot of functionality changes at its core, making weapons customizable, as well as clothes and changes in controls and the map. The game, when it is released, will launch on Steam.