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 Sigma Shark SP-635 Power Supply
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July 2, 2008, 12:06 pm Posted by: alex |
 The first thing we are going to look at with the Sigma Shark SP-635 power supply is its packaging, accessories, and documentation. While none of these items is a real make or break item for a power supply the packaging quite often contains a lot of information about the product we are purchasing. The inclusion of an owner’s manual that provides actual information about our product is also of great help. Accessories are almost unnecessary with a power supply as the unit is self contained, unless it is modular, but there cases where a manufacturer can include useful accessories to make installation, routing and use more efficient.
  
The Sigma SP-635 packaging is similar to the SP-700 as it is dressed in basic black. Featured on the packaging are the connector count, power label (reproduced below), the usual assortment of marketing points, SLI and CrossFire labels but no listing for a warranty. After a quick check of the SLIZone website we find the website does not show the Sigma SP-635 as being certified for any level of SLI while a quick check of the CrossFire website also doesn’t find the Sigma SP-635 listed for any level of CrossFire at the time of writing.
Read more on this right here.
[H]ardOCP |
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Rock Band 2 rocking on 360 in Sept. - PS3, PS2, Wii 'later in the year'
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July 1, 2008, 4:43 pm Posted by: alex |
While IGN simply reports that Rock Band 2 is "set to ship for Xbox 360 this September and PS3 later in the year," the AP says it will be "available for Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 as well as Nintendo's Wii later in the year." While the two at least agree about the "later in the year" detail, neither answer our biggest question about this arrangement: Is this presumably brief period of Xbox 360-exclusivity a business arrangement – as it was for Rock Band in Europe earlier this year – or simply a development reality?
Sure we've got other questions – like will the PS2 and Wii releases be similar to the watered-down experiences currently available – but with Guitar Hero IV coming out for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, and PC in late October, details on the nature of the timed exclusive seem paramount. We've asked the hard-rocking folks at Harmonix to let us in on the nature of the arrangement.
Read more on this right here.
addthis_pub = 'weblogsinc'; addthis_options = 'digg, facebook, delicious, myspace, aolfav, propeller, google, live, stumbleupon, reddit, favorites, technorati, aim, more';
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Nintendo pushes back DVD-playing Wii for Japan, again
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June 30, 2008, 8:02 pm Posted by: alex |
 While those of us 'round these parts have pretty much given up on the idea of a DVD-playing Wii a long time ago, folks in Japan have had some cause for hope based on promises from the company that such a system was, in fact, headed for the country sooner or later. It seems like they're now about to enter the acceptance phase as well, however, as Nintendo has just announced yet another delay to the system with no word about an eventual release date. According to IGN, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata would only go so far as to say that due continuing worldwide supply constraints on the current Wii, "the priority is on the current model." One thing getting a boost in availability, however, is the Nintendo DS 1Seg TV tuner, which Nintendo says will get a retail release next month after previously only being available online.
Read more on this right here.
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BFG Tech GeForce GTX 280 OC & GTX 260
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June 24, 2008, 3:48 pm Posted by: alex |
In November of 2006, NVIDIA unveiled its then brand new DirectX 10 unified architecture GPU, the G80 series, specifically known as the GeForce 8800 GTX. The GeForce 8800 GTX has been so kind to the gamers through the years, but it is time to remove its crown and make was for its successor!
   
The GeForce 8800 GTX introduced a new unified architecture that allowed “stream processors” to carry out pixel, vertex and geometry acceleration functions. The kicker was that there were 128 of these little buggers which meant a LOT of pixel, or vertex shading power was available to the video card for the first time. Not only that, but none of the shading power was wasted since in a unified architecture every shader processor is utilized for something, none sit idle like they use to back in the days of a fixed pipeline GPU. To read more about the unified architecture click here.
The GeForce 8800 GTX also excelled in other ways by being supporting a very wide 384-bit memory bus and have a standard complement of 768MB of it available. This extraordinary shader power combined with memory bandwidth and capacity has allowed the GeForce 8800 GTX to remain at the top of the performance scale in games, especially at high resolutions with AA enabled.
Read more on this right here.
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Vantec NexStar 3i Power Management HDD Enclosure Review
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June 23, 2008, 1:12 pm Posted by: alex |
Lately there has been a great increase in customer and industry awareness of so-called 'green' technologies. Whether it's biofuels, hybrid cars or simply riding your bike to work, all of these have gotten increase attention either because of rising energy prices, concern for the environment or both.
  
The computer industry has been no different. Most recently we've seen the 80 PLUS Program, an attempt to get the efficiency of power supplies at or above 80% under typical load; this is now power of the "Energy Star" specification. And, of course, computers have had the ability to enter lower-power modes such as sleep or hibernate for years. Vantec is now banking on these trends with their latest HD enclosure, the NexStar 3i with Power Management. Though it may seem like a small savings to optimize the power usage of a single HDD, Vantec is betting that consumers will value this functionality for external HDDs.
Read more on this right here.
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Swede used 40Gbps internet connection to dry laundry
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June 18, 2008, 9:06 am Posted by: alex |
 Chances are, you could think of a million and one ways to totally take advantage of having a 40Gbps internet connection installed in your abode, but for one Sigbritt Löthberg -- who actually had such a setup -- she chose to take advantage of it in quite a perplexing way. Reportedly, the 75-year old dame wasn't too interested in downloading an entire HD film in two seconds or having ping times more minuscule than the brain can fathom; rather, she chose to use the excess heat emitted from all the kit shoved in her house to "dry her laundry." Unfortunately, the poor lady has had the gear removed from her domicile for further testing in another location, but according to Hafsteinn Jonsson, who is heading up the fiber network operation for Karlstad Stadsnät, they're considering "giving her a 100Gbps [link] in the summer -- then she'll be able to dry all her neighbors' laundry too."
Read more on this right here.
Google.com |
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By: 
To reinforce the cooling capacity of the ARCTIC RC, RC Turbo Module, a dual-fan cooler reduces the RAM temperature even further!
There's no indication of an exact release date just yet, but word just dropped on the official PlayStation blog that the PSP will be getting a boost to firmware version 4.00 "soon." That'll bring with it the addition of Google search directly form the XMB interface, which Sony says "replicates the Google Internet search experience." Apart from that somewhat notable upgrade, the only other new feature they're talking about at the moment is the ability to change the viewing speed during playback of videos stored on a Memory Stick. Not exactly the upgrade we would have guessed for a milestone like 4.00, but we can always hope Sony has a couple of surprises up its sleeve.
