High Tech Gaming

XFX GeForce 8800 GT Video Card

2008-10-11T08:59:00.001-07:00

XFX GeForce 8800 GT Video Card - Alpha Dog Edition, 512MB DDR3, PCI
Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, Variable Fan Speed

Redefine your gaming reality with the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB PCI Express
2.0 graphics card featuring the world's first DirectX® 10 GPU and a powerful
unified architecture that delivers an incredibly true-to-life gaming experience.
Power through games at record speeds and charge through game maps with vividly
realistic, sun-up to sun-down HDR lighting effects while steering clear of mind-blowing
physics effects such as explosions, fire, and smoke. And when you're not destroying
the enemy, relax watching your favorite movies with NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD technology.

NVIDIA
SLI (Scalable Link Interface)

NVIDIA SLI™ (Scalable Link Interface) technology is a revolutionary
approach to scalability and increased performance. NVIDIA SLI takes advantage
of the increased bandwidth of the PCI Express™ bus architecture,
and features hardware and software innovations within NVIDIA GPUs (graphics
processing units) and NVIDIA nForce4 MCPs (media and communications processors).
Together the NVIDIA SLI patent-pending technologies work seamlessly to
deliver heart-pounding PC performance. And depending on the application,
NVIDIA SLI can deliver as much as 2x the performance of a single GPU configuration
for unparalleled gaming experiences.

NVIDIA
Unified Architecture

Fully unified shader core dynamically allocates processing power to geometry,
vertex, physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering an incredibly
true-to-life 3D graphics.

NVIDIA
Lumenex™ Engine

Support for 128-bit and 64-bit floating point HDR with up to 16x anti-aliasing

delivering vividly realistic lighting effects while obliterating ‘jaggies’.

Microsoft
DirectX 10 Geometry Shaders

Dynamic geometry creation smoothes surfaces and enables incredibly detailed
environments, shadows, and effects.

NVIDIA
Quantum Effects™ Technology

Advanced shader processors architected for physics computation deliver
amazing performance and visual effects such as smoke, fire, and explosions.

Shader
Model 4.0 Technology

Get your box geared up for the future of games with blazing fast shader
performance and watch your characters sweat with Shader Model 4.0.

NVIDIA
PureVideo HD Technology

Available on HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs, high-definition movies are bringing
an exciting new video experience to PC users. NVIDIA® PureVideo™
HD technology lets you enjoy cinematic-quality HD DVD and Blu-ray movies
with low CPU utilization and power consumption, allowing higher quality
movie playback and picture clarity.

High
Dynamic Range (HDR)

High dynamic-range(HDR) lighting effects bring environments to life for
a truly immersive experience. It takes advantage of the subtle light,
texture, and color intricacies to create incredibly realistic environments.

Windows
Vista Ready

Windows Vista is the first operating system to require a GPU (Graphics
Processing Unit) to realize the best experience possible.

PCI Express
2.0 Support

PCI Express Base 2.0 specification doubles the interconnect bit rate
from 2.5 GT/s to 5 GT/s in a seamless and compatible manner. The performance
boost to 5 GT/s is by far the most important feature of the PCI Express
2.0 specifications. It effectively increases the aggregate bandwidth of
a 16-lane link to approximately 16 GB/s. The higher bandwidth will allow
product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve
high performance. (backwards compatible with PCI Express)

Specifications

	GPU/VPU:	NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT


	RAMDAC:	Dual 400 MHz


	Additional Features:	HDCP Enabled
		HDTV Ready
		SLI Ready
		OpenGL 2.0
		DirectX 10
		PCI Express 2.0
		Vista Certified


	Maximum Resolution:	2560 x 1600 (Digital)

	Video Memory:	512MB


	Memory Type:	DDR3


	Core Clock:	600 MHz


	Memory Clock:	1800 MHz


	Stream Processors:	112

	Interface Type:	PCI Express 2.0


	Interface Speed:	x16


	Connector(s):	Dual DVI (Dual Link)
		HDTV/S-Video


	Multiple Monitors Support:	Yes

Detailed Features

A Closer Look

Features

Full DirectX 10 Support

World's first DirecX 10 GPU with full Shader Model 4.0 support delivers
unparalleled levels of graphic realism and film-quality effects
OpenGL 2.0 Optimizations and Support

Ensures top-Notch compatiblity and performance for OpenGL applications
NVIDIA Lumenex Engine

Delivers stunning image quality and floating point accuracy at ultra-fastfrmae
rates
NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology

Advanced shader processors architected for physics computation enable
a new level of physics effects to be simulated and rendered on the GPU - all
while freeing the CPU to run the game engine and AI
GigaThread™ Technology

Massively multi-threaded architecture supports thousands of independent, simultaneous
threads, providing extreme processing efficiency in advanced, next generation
shader programs.
NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD Technology

Second generation NVIDIA PureVideo® HD engine delivers outstanding Blu-ray
and HD DVD movie quality with drastically reduced power consumption

Minimum System Requirements

1GB of system memory
CD-ROM drive
50MB of available hard disk drive space for basic driver installation
Microsoft Windows XP operating system
PCI Express-compliant motherboard with one vacant PCI Express x16 slot
450W PCI Express-compliant system power supply with a combined 12V current
rating of 30A or more.

Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System PZ44

2008-10-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

The Saitek Pro Flight
Yoke System is highly engineered to meet the exacting needs of the true flight
simulation enthusiast. Stainless steel shaft, ergonomic controls, integrated
chronograph and separate throttle quadrant ensure a smooth, accurate and totally
realistic flying experience. Plus with the Saitek Pro Flight Throttle Quadrant
you can set the levers to control aircraft throttles, adjust elevator trim, fuel
mixture or even to engage reverse thrust during landing. The Saitek Pro Flight
Throttle Quadrant will work in any major flight simulation to give you all the
control you need

Features

Durable Stainless Steel shaft with precision
bearings gives smooth and predictable elevator and aileron control.
Used with supplied SST Programming software,
integrated mode switch trebles the number of controls you have at your
fingertips.
Accurately time each leg of your flight plan
with the integrated chronograph.
Separate throttle quadrant with additional
switches to configure any combination of throttle, flaps, mixture or prop
pitch. Mount on top, in front of your desk, pilot or co-pilot side so that
the controls are exactly where you want them.
Unique, 2-position desk clamp keeps your
Yoke and Quadrant securely fixed no matter how extreme the flying
conditions.
Use the integrated USB Hub to easily connect
other parts of the Saitek Pro Flight range of products, such as additional
Pro Flight Throttle Quadrant or Pro Flight Instrument Panel (Both Sold
Separately).
Saitek's powerful Saitek Smart Technology
(SST) programming software allows gamers to configure their controls to suit
their preferred gaming style, and to save the configurations as personal
profiles.
14 buttons
POV Hat Switch
3-position Mode Switch
3 axis levers on Quadrant
Elevator and Aileron Axes on Yoke

Specifications

Supports Window XP/XP64/and Vista (all
versions)
USB 2.0 port

Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals

2008-10-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals PZ35 - Soar
through the skies in complete command and control with the Pro Flight Rudder
Peals; solidly constructed 3 axis controller that adds authenticity to PC flight
simulations by enabling control of the rudder and brakes with your fee. Non-slip
pedals have adjustable settings to fit all foot sizes, whole easy central
tension adjustment allows you o control the pedal-rudder resistance. Perfect for
use with the X52 Flight Control System and other joysticks!

Features

Solidly constructed 3-axis pedals maximize
flight sim realism by enabling foot control of the rudder function.
Silent, smooth action for optimum control
and precision.
Self-centring pedals with adjustable damping
Foot rests adjust to fit all sizes and
include non-slip materials
Precise rudder and braking control
Tension adjustment - choose resistance to
suit the way you fly
High quality, part metal construction for
long life
Advanced SST Programming
Two year manufacturer warranty

Razer Destructor Precision Gaming Surface

2008-10-10T09:50:00.001-07:00

The Razer Destructor Precision Gaming Surface is a high
end mouse pad developed for extreme gamers looking for the very best. The Razer
Destructor offers three key features that will make sure you're on top of the
game: 1) Large Surface Area for freedom of movement 2) Improved optical and
laser mouse tracking up to 37% better 3) Textured surface for enhanced precision
movements. Also includes, a carrying case with zipper.

The Razer Destructor was co-designed, tested and validated
by some of the most internationally respected and revered eSports teams,
including Fnatic, Team World Elite and Team EG. Through their constant input,
our engineers were able to push the boundaries of invention beyond all
expectations, culminating in a product whose level of refinement is only
possible at the highest echelons of competitive tuning.

Features

Razer Fractal textured surface for enhanced precision
movements -

The crux of the Razer Destructor’s innovation lies in its proprietary
gunmetal coating which yields a highly reactive surface. The result is
superior tactility, improved responsiveness and enhanced tracking.
Tracking - Optimized to improve optical and laser
gaming-grade mouse performance. The Razer Destructor was made with one
primary mission in mind: to coax the maximum performance from gaming-grade
mice. And the results speak for themselves. Gaming-grade optical mice track
up to 25% better on the Razer Destructor, and gaming-grade laser mice up to
37% better, when compared to other gaming-mousing surfaces which are
designed specifically for extremely precise movements.
Ultra-wide size - Measuring 350mm (length) x 280mm
(width) x 2.3mm (height), the Razer Destructor provides an ample mousing
area for lower-sensitivity gamers accustomed to performing sweeping
movements.
Includes carrying case with zipper.

Specifications

Razer Fractal surface for high-precision gameplay
Optimized for both optical and laser gaming-grade
mice
Ultra-wide size ideal for continuous, rapid swipes:
350mm (length) x 280mm (width) x 2.3mm (height) - 13.78 x 11.02 x 0.09
inches
Non-slip rubber base for firm grip on smooth surfaces
Includes a premium lightweight protective case

Xi Mtower IGE-STACKER

2008-10-06T07:50:00.001-07:00

This overclocked dual-core desktop outgunned pricier, quad-core systems.

The impressive MTower IGE-Stacker from Xi Computer proves once again that you don't need to move to quad-core computing--or take out a bank loan--to obtain a desktop system capable of winning performance.

This dual-core unit's performance surpassed that of the quad-core power and gaming systems we recently tested, and earned a record-breaking score of 139 in our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 test suite; the previous high was the CyberPower Gamer Infinity Ultimate's score of 129. Better still, at $3299 (as of September 12, 2007), it's one of the least expensive power-oriented PCs we've seen of late.

The MTower is equipped with Intel's fastest dual-core processor to date, the 3-GHz Core 2 Duo E6850, which Xi overclocks to 3.3 GHz (and covers under warranty). The CPU also boasts a faster frontside bus speed (1333 MHz) than its dual-core forebears had (1066 MHz). Using a single, 768MB EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics board on an nForce 680i SLI-ready motherboard, our MTower was a racehorse in its graphics performance, earning the highest scores for most resolution settings among the four power systems we tested in the latest batch. For example, running at 1280 by 1024 resolution with antialiasing turned on in the graphically intensive game Far Cry, the MTower averaged 232 frames per second, compared with its rivals' average of 200 fps.

The MTower's black aluminum case (Cooler Master Stacker 832) features mesh grilles on both side panels as well as on the top and bottom sides. A hinged front panel conceals six external drive bays, two of which in our test model were occupied with a DVD burner and DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo player (but no multiformat card reader). Port connectors for USB, FireWire, and audio are sensibly located at the very top of the case, making them easy to access if the system sits on the floor. Additional USB and FireWire ports are provided on the back, but no parallel or serial ports for older devices are included.

The case's side panel and a second inner panel (featuring three of a maximum four 120mm fans) both come off easily without tools. The IGE-Stacker also has a liquid cooling system (Cooler Master Aquagate S1), and you can adjust its fan speed via a dial on the back of the rig (useful if you wanted to tinker with overclocking the processor yourself--though doing so would void Xi's warranty). As shipped, the liquid cooling of the MTower wasn't noisy or overly distracting, but I could definitely hear it humming along. Two of the four internal drive bays were filled with a pair of 150GB, 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor hard drives configured in a RAID 0 array, and of the four memory slots, two were occupied, giving our test machine a total of 2GB of DDR2 RAM. Our test model also offered two PCIe x16 and two PCI slots, but both PCIe x1 slots were unavailable: One was covered by the extrawide graphics card, and the other was blocked by the water cooler's adjustable dial bracket.

The bundled 22-inch wide-screen LCD, a ViewSonic VX2255wmb, delivered excellent color fidelity in both still and moving images, and readable text in small sizes. I also liked the convenience of its built-in microphone and 1.3-megapixel Webcam. The included Logitech Deluxe 250 keyboard and optical mouse were responsive but offered no extras; you may want to spend a few extra bucks on more versatile input devices.

If you don't require quad-core capability out of the box, the overclocked MTower IGE-Stacker offers top-flight performance and easy expandability at a very reasonable price.

--Richard Jantz

CyberPower Gamer Infinity Ultimate

2008-10-06T07:47:00.001-07:00

This overclocked system is blisteringly fast and comes with the works, justifying its high price.

The Gamer Infinity Ultimate may lack the exotic looks and customized touches that uber-gaming systems from high-end boutiques like Voodoo and Alienware possess, but it makes up in function and price for any shortcomings in form. At $4399 as of March 16, 2007, including ViewSonic's VG2230WM (a $320, 22-inch, flat-panel display), the Gamer Infinity Ultimate costs thousands of dollars less than some gaming systems, yet delivers top-flight performance and first-rate hardware.

For gamers, performance is king, and the Gamer Infinity Ultimate qualifies as royalty. Its WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 129 was the highest of the eight power systems running Windows Vista that we tested recently. The Gamer Infinity Ultimate runs on Intel's latest quad-core, Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU, which CyberPower overclocked to 3.46 GHz. Notably, the system scored very well on the multitasking portion of WorldBench 6 Beta 2--second only to the Xi MTower IGE-SLI, which runs on Intel's dual-core Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU.

Using dual SLI XFX GeForce 8800GTX graphics boards, our Gamer Infinity Ultimate scored very well: Frame rates while running Doom 3 and Far Cry were very high for most resolution settings; in some cases they were second only to the Xi MTower IGE-SLI, which used a single 768MB XFX GeForce 8800GTX graphics board.

In lieu of occupying an exotically sculpted case, our test PC came in a relatively staid Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 tower. Unlike many aluminum cases, the CM Stacker feels sturdy, and--as the name implies--it offers excellent cooling. Every face, including the bottom, has vents in it; and the interior holds five fans. Speed-hungry overclockers who aren't fans of liquid cooling systems will like the included Vigor Gaming Monsoon II CPU cooler, which combines airflow with a powerful Peltier cooler.

Data storage should be no problem for even the most inveterate digital packrats. Our review model came with two high-performance 150GB, 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor hard drives configured in a RAID 0 array, an additional 500GB hard drive, and a LiteOn Blu-ray DVD drive that can stores up to 25GB of content per disc. The $557 Blu-ray drive included with our test model is nice, but a frugal buyer could substitute a far less expensive DVD drive to lower the overall system cost. Gamers will like the Logitech G15 gaming keyboard, which carries its own LCD display for gaming stats plus 18 programmable buttons for gaming shortcuts.

Latches enable you to release both side panels for quick access to the case's interior, and the bank of four cooling fans located under one side panel pops off easily. You can add a card or drive without tools, but the bulky graphics cards block several of the expansion slots, and you have to remove a graphics card to reach the hard-drive bays.

The ViewSonic VG2230WM flat-panel display that accompanied our review unit displayed crisp details and rich colors, though we had to adjust the contrast to brighten the screen for DVD movie playback. Small type (6.8-point font) was sharp and readable at 1024 by 768 resolution.

The Gamer Infinity Ultimate may be expensive, but it packs a lot of value for gamers and power users who need speed, storage, and the ability to upgrade.

Kirk Steers

Xi Mtower IGE-SLI

2008-10-06T07:45:00.001-07:00

This fast, water-cooled, dual-core PC generated high video frame rates with just one graphics card.

Using the same components found in other high-end systems, Xi Computer builds PCs that regularly top our performance charts--and the MTower IGE-SLI Gamer (priced at $3655 as of March 16, 2007) is no exception.

Of the eight Vista-equipped power desktop systems we recently tested using the Beta 2 version of our WorldBench 6 test suite, the MTower earned the second-highest score--a mark of 127, just behind the 129 posted by the CyberPower Gamer Infinity Ultimate. The MTower cemented its gaming credentials by posting the top frame rates in our Doom 3 and Far Cry tests at various screen resolutions. Its mark of 204 frames per second while running Far Cry at a 1024 by 768 resolution beat the frame rate of its nearest competitor--the Gamer Infinity Ultimate--by more than 10 percent.

The MTower achieved this performance with a less-powerful processor and graphics card combo than the CyberPower used. The MTower sported a dual-core, 2.93-GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 overclocked to 3.2 GHz and a single EVGA 8800 GTS graphics board. The MTower posted the top score on the multitasking portion of our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 tests, too.

The lesson: You may want to forgo a quad-core CPU and a second graphics board until more software can take advantage of these features. Fortunately, the MTower's nForce 680i motherboard gives you the option of waiting until later to upgrade; it supports Intel's new quad-core CPUs and can accommodate a second SLI graphics card.

The MTower's black midsize tower case isn't terribly stylish: A large window on one side reveals the system's innards bathed in an eerie blue light, but otherwise the exterior is standard fare. The unit came with a floppy drive; this may come in handy for BIOS upgrades or RAID installs, but most hardcore gamers would rather have a second DVD drive and a third hard drive to complement the two 150GB, 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor drives (which are optimized for performance in a RAID 0 array).

Unlike many water-cooled PCs equipped with SLI, the Cooler Master water-cooling system in the MTower is quiet and permits unobstructed upgrading. The case's cover pops off without balking to reveal an uncluttered, roomy interior. The presence of a single SLI graphics board helps avoid blocking the expansion slots (dual-card systems tend to make access more difficult). You may have to brush aside a few cables and cooling lines to reach the drive bays or RAM, but they are easy to reach, too.

I especially liked the Logitech MX3200 laser mouse and keyboard. The mouse has a pleasing ergonomic fit and lots of control buttons that aren't prone to accidental clicks. The keyboard includes a small LED screen and plenty of multimedia and other control buttons--among them, VoIP controls.

The $200, 22-inch Sceptre X22WG-Gamer flat-panel display delivered rich, colorful images in still graphics, game play, and DVD movie playback. Small (6.8-point) text was readable, though the edges of letters did blur slightly.

The MTower may not have the fancy looks of boutique PCs that cost thousands of dollars more, but it should satisfy any power user who wants fast performance and easy upgrading.

Kirk Steers

Polywell Poly P3503

2008-10-06T07:41:00.001-07:00

This overclocked water-cooled desktop is reasonably fast and nicely loaded.

At $3999 (as of
September 12, 2007) bundled with a 22-inch LCD, the P3503 is a
well-equipped system that includes a generous total of 650GB of
hard-drive space and offers solid performance.

The model we looked at has a 2.93-GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6800
processor that Polywell has overclocked to 3.33 GHz (and covers under
warranty), plus 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The company also offers the P3503 with
Intel's 3-GHz QX6850 quad-core CPU for the same price as the QX6800.

Interestingly,
however, even when competing with models using the QX6850, the P3503's
overclocked QX6800 processor held up fairly well in our tests.

Running
Windows Vista Ultimate in our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 test suite, the P3503
earned a score of 122, putting it a little behind the gaming-PC field's average of 126 but well behind the blazingly fast Xi MTower IGE-Stacker's WorldBench 6 Beta 2 result of 139.

Equipped
with a single 768MB EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics board, the P3503
scored consistently well for all resolution settings in gaming
performance. It ran at 180 frames per second in Doom 3 at 1280 by 1024
resolution, just beating competing models, including the Xi MTower
IGE-Stacker.

The P3503's black, midsize-tower case has
ventilation grilles on the front and side, both backlit with blue
lights. The side panel comes off easily, and inside the case a
water-cooling system and a copper heat sink help keep the system from
overheating.

Our test machine came with a dual-layer
DVD burner that supports LightScribe labeling (a silk-screen-like,
high-contrast label on the top side of CD or DVD media), a
DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo player, and a multiformat card reader, leaving
three of the six external drive bays open. A Seagate 500GB hard drive
and two Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10,000-rpm hard drives occupy
three of the four internal drive bays, and five open slots (two PCIe
x1, one PCIe x16, and two PCI) are available for further expansion.

The
P3503's Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard supports CrossFire graphics (using
two CrossFire-compatible cards, not the SLI-compatible GeForce 8800
card in our test system), and it includes on-board wireless networking
and an adjustable antenna. The P3503 also provides an ample number of
ports on the front and back, including nine USB ports and two eSATA
connections, but it lacks ports for serial and parallel peripherals.

The
bundled Samsung SyncMaster 225BW wide-screen LCD was easy to adjust,
and it displayed strong image quality with clear, readable text and
colorful graphics, including great-looking Vista Aero features. The
Logitech Premium Desktop keyboard and wireless optical mouse were both
responsive, solid performers, but gamers may want devices with more
programmable features.

The Polywell P3505 provides plenty of power and is a worthy choice for any power user.

--Richard Jantz

Razer's Gaming Keyboard and Mouse

2008-10-06T07:25:00.001-07:00

Razer made waves in the PC peripheral market with their high-precision Razer Boomslang mouse, and has steadily grown a healthy business with more advanced mice over the last several years (in the face of competition from the likes of Microsoft and Logitech). Now it has set its sights on the other half of the "mouse and keyboard" PC gaming control equation.

The company's gaming keyboard, dubbed the "Tarantula," is claimed to be the "World's smartest keyboard." Like its Copperhead mouse, the keyboard contains its own memory and can store macros and commands, so you can set it up on your own PC and take it to the LAN party without the need to reprogram it. There are five profiles, and in each one you can fully reprogram every single key on the keyboard. If you want the Windows key to open the scoreboard in Counter-Strike, that's no problem. In addition, there are five macro keys on the left of the keyboard and five to the right of the number pad, giving you ten programmable macros per profile.

When we spoke with Razer's CEO at CES, he informed us that this will be the first low-latency keyboard on the market. Nobody talks about keyboard latency, but according to Razer, it's actually quite bad (over 120 milliseconds on most keyboards). The Tarantula will feature a latency of less than 8ms. Another nifty feature: You won't be limited to "chording" (or pressing at the same time) only 3 keys. The Tarantula features anti-ghosting technology that allows you to chord as many keys together as you want. Other innovations include short-throw, silent keys that are easily removable with a little plastic snap-off key tool, so you can wash them. The keyboard will also feature a pair of USB ports and both headphone and microphone jacks. The design and software are still being finalized—the Tarantula won't ship until around May of this year for $99.99.

If that sounds like it's a bit steep for your gaming peripheral budget, consider the Razer Krait mouse. With an MSRP of $39.99 (and e-tail availability probably $10 less), this is a gaming mouse that won't break the bank. It only has three buttons, but it still features most of the things Razer is known for, including 1600 DPI sensitivity, lightweight, a thin and light cord, and lots of tweaking options in the drivers. The mouse is optimized for real-time strategy games, with a new "rebound" technology that makes the buttons just a little bit springy, which is said to increase the number of clicks per second you can achieve. It's also a little smaller than other Razer mice, good for the Asian market where RTS games are most popular but also handy for the Western world's smaller-handed gamers. The Krait is almost ready to ship, and should be on shelves by the end of the month.

ASUS N10

2008-10-01T03:40:00.001-07:00

ASUS' N10
might be a netbook, but it’s certainly no Eee PC - not if your general
conception of the Eee range is a basic web-surfing machine that would
run out of breath even at the mention of gaming. Mobile Computer
have been putting the N10 through its paces, and one thing is clear: a
netbook becomes a very different animal once you add switchable NVIDIA
GeForce 9200M graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard-drive and HDMI output.

Check out the ASUS N10 gaming demo video after the cut

The switchable video card - the N10 has both onboard Intel 945
graphics, like other netbooks, together with the NVIDIA card, that you
swap between with a reboot - means games like Call of Duty 4
play smoothly at the LCD’s native 1024 x 600 resolution (although a
little tweaking to the anti-aliasing was required). It’s also capable
of handling 480p high-definition video, though reviewer Julian Prokaza
had trouble with 720p.

Mobile Computer are basically calling the ASUS N10 a crossover, a
blend of netbook and traditional ultraportable, and it sounds like many
of the strengths of each are brought along too. Pre-orders for the N10
are currently starting from around $600, though that climbs rapidly when you start looking at more traditional-spec models.

XDR2 DRAM

2008-09-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

Rambus announced the XDR2 technology, the latest version of its high-bandwidth XDR memory interface technology that supplies up to five times more usable bandwidth to memory controllers than today's best competing memory technologies.

According to the company, the XDR2 technology will offer better pictures for games consoles as well as for high-end PCs. Rambus has already announced the XDR technology that will be used in Sony's PlayStation 3.

The XDR2 memory interfaces use the micro-threading technology. This patent-pended technology works by partitioning a traditional 8-bank CMOS DRAM core into 16 independently addressable banks. In today's memory devices, a single column access uses resources on both halves of the DRAM. An XDR2 DRAM device however, accesses only small portions of data per column access, allowing finer access granularity and increased effective bandwidth.

XDR2 DRAM devices are targeting 8.0GHz data rates, enabling a single DRAM device with 16GB/s of peak bandwidth. XDR2 memory interfaces will also use Rambus's FlexPhaseTM timing circuitry with additional adaptive timing features for a more robust signaling environment at high bandwidth. The XDR2 architecture provides the capability to scale data rates beyond 8.0GHz and will provide chip and system designers with the features they need to achieve the highest performance using the fewest number of controller pins and DRAM devices.

"XDR2 is our latest iteration of the XDR DRAM architecture and will help 3D games and graphics-intensive applications realize the high performance potential that users demand," said Laura Stark, vice president of the Platform Solutions Group at Rambus.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, Toshiba and Elpida Memory have just started making XDR parts. This means that the new version (XDR2) should not be expected in products before 2007.

NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Motherboards

2008-09-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Designed for extreme gamers and hardware enthusiasts, this new KN2 SLI, is a member of the top-of-the-line ECS Extreme motherboard series.

Featuring ECS’ Scalable D.G.E. (Scalable Dual Graphic Engines) architecture, the KN2 SLI can leverage NVIDIA SLI x16 technology with dual PCI Express x16 slots and one DUO-N card. Driven by the DUO-N card, the dual PCI-E x16 slots can provide two full bandwidth, 16-lane logical PCI-E connections, supporting twice the bandwidth of dual x8 designs. This dual PCI-E x16 design ensures maximum graphics performance for next-generation GPUs and games.

To meet the needs of the most demanding gamers who continually seek better performance for higher scores - the KN2 SLI also features the nTune utility, a performance optimisation tool that enables performance enthusiasts to overclock easily, safely and automatically.

Along with supercharged performance, the KN2 SLI delivers storage convenience and security. Embedding NVIDIA’s advanced NFORCE4 SLI x16 chipset, the KN2 SLI features MediaShield storage technology, providing RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 functionality for safe and easy storage of digital media assets plus SATA II and NCQ for high disk performance. Better yet, NVIDIA ActiveArmor technology activates secure networking as soon as the PC is powered up, delivering the highest level of network security and system performance by protecting the PC from virus intrusion.

NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Platforms Define the Standard for Expandable PCs

NVIDIA nForce®4 SLI media and communications processors (MCPs) offer blistering graphics and system performance and overall PC performance for both AMD and Intel platforms. With the power of NVIDIA SLI™ technology you can connect two NVIDIA SLI-Ready PCI Express® graphics cards for mind-blowing gameplay with brilliant and intensive 3D graphics. You can even use the second PCI Express slot to take advantage of future technologies that will be designed around the PCI Express standard.


Windows Vista™ Capable NVIDIA nForce®4-based motherboards are perfect for Microsoft® Windows Vista™ when coupled with an NVIDIA® GeForce® graphics card and 512MB of system memory.

The unique low-latency architecture of the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI MCPs offers one of the industry’s best core-logic solution with outstanding performance that features the latest technologies—SLI technology, PCI Express, high-speed networking, and high-performance storage—and ensures that your PC stays ready for the newest games, future applications, and next-generation PC specifications.

SLI-Ready Now Available for Many Budgets

SLI-Ready PCs and motherboards were once available only to the most elite PC enthusiasts. Now, NVIDIA and its partners deliver award-winning SLI technology to many more users. For a complete list of SLI-Ready motherboards, components, and PCs, visit SLIZone.


		SLI™-Ready for extreme performance Supports two NVIDIA SLI-ready graphics cards for scalable performance. NVIDIA nForce4 SLI MCPs include dedicated SLI hardware to maximize gaming performance.

NVIDIA nTune™ - Optimized PC Performance
Enables one of the safest and easiest ways to optimize your PC and squeeze more performance out of the box. Faster than tuning by hand, nTune delivers optimal settings for bus speeds, HyperTransport, memory timings, CPU registers, fans, and voltages in a safe, easy-to-use Microsoft® Windows® interface. Provides the ability to overclock system settings without entering the BIOS or changing hardware jumpers.

NVIDIA MediaShield™ - Advanced storage with RAID technology
Unique support for four SATA 3Gb/s and four ATA-133 drives. RAID 5*, 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1 support, enabling fast disk data transfers. Allows RAID arrays across both SATA and PATA hard drives and provides advanced features like the NVIDIA disk alert system that immediately alerts you if a drive fails, and dedicated spare disks that will automatically rebuild if a failed hard drive is detected. (*RAID 5 supported only for Intel platforms)

ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

2008-09-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

AMD hasn't exactly kept the product we're going to be showing you here today a secret. Once NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 200 series, and AMD had a look at what the cards could do first hand, AMD's marketing machine was tuned up and revved to its redline expunging the features and benefits of their upcoming GPU. Then, when the initial products in the Radeon HD 4800 series launched, AMD's plan became quite clear.

The Radeon HD 4800 series didn't overwhelm NVIDIA's GTX 200 series with raw performance. In fact, the GeForce GTX 280 and 9800 GX2 were more powerful than the Radeon HD 4870. The Radeon HD 4800 series cards, however, were still excellent cards and they were offered at extremely competitive prices, which put significant pressure on NVIDA. At the time of their launch, the Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870 were both less expensive and more powerful than the GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce GTX 260, respectively. Since then, NVIDIA has reacted with a quick round of price cuts.

While enthusiasts were contemplating the purchase of a new Radeon or GeForce, AMD then planted another seed and released some concrete details regarding the Radeon HD 4870 X2, as if to say, "Yeah, we've got you covered at the $300 price point and a new, ultra powerful behemoth is coming real soon too. Maybe you should hold onto your upgrade money for a bit?"

That behemoth is the Radeon HD 4870 X2. As its name suggests, the card features two RV770 GPUs running in tandem, for what is effectively a Radeon HD 4870 CrossFire configuration on a single PCB. Other than its pair of GPUs, however, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 has a few more differentiating factors we'll need to tell you about. Read on for the full scoop...

ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Cards (Codename R700)

AMD ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series

Specifications and Features

956 million transistors on 55nm fabrication process
PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface
256-bit GDDR3/GDDR5 memory interface
Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support
- Shader Model 4.1
- 32-bit floating point texture filtering
- Indexed cube map arrays
- Independent blend modes per render target
- Pixel coverage sample masking
- Read/write multi-sample surfaces with shaders
- Gather4 texture fetching
Unified Superscalar Shader Architecture
- 800 stream processing units
  - Dynamic load balancing and resource allocation for vertex, geometry, and pixel shaders
  - Common instruction set and texture unit access supported for all types of shaders
  - Dedicated branch execution units and texture address processors
- 128-bit floating point precision for all operations
- Command processor for reduced CPU overhead
- Shader instruction and constant caches
- Up to 160 texture fetches per clock cycle
- Up to 128 textures per pixel
- Fully associative multi-level texture cache design
- DXTC and 3Dc+ texture compression
- High resolution texture support (up to 8192 x 8192)
- Fully associative texture Z/stencil cache designs
- Double-sided hierarchical Z/stencil buffer
- Early Z test, Re-Z, Z Range optimization, and Fast Z Clear
- Lossless Z & stencil compression (up to 128:1)
- Lossless color compression (up to 8:1)
- 8 render targets (MRTs) with anti-aliasing support
- Physics processing support
Dynamic Geometry Acceleration
- High performance vertex cache
- Programmable tessellation unit
- Accelerated geometry shader path for geometry amplification
- Memory read/write cache for improved stream output performance
Anti-aliasing features
- Multi-sample anti-aliasing (2, 4 or 8 samples per pixel)
- Up to 24x Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing (CFAA) for improved quality
- Adaptive super-sampling and multi-sampling
- Gamma correct
- Super AA (ATI CrossFireX configurations only)
- All anti-aliasing features compatible with HDR rendering
Texture filtering features
- 2x/4x/8x/16x high quality adaptive anisotropic filtering modes (up to 128 taps per pixel)
- 128-bit floating point HDR texture filtering
- sRGB filtering (gamma/degamma)
- Percentage Closer Filtering (PCF)
- Depth & stencil texture (DST) format support
- Shared exponent HDR (RGBE 9:9:9:5) texture format support

OpenGL 2.0 support

ATI PowerPlay

Advanced power management technology for optimal performance and power savings
Performance-on-Demand
- Constantly monitors GPU activity, dynamically adjusting clocks and voltage based on user scenario
- Clock and memory speed throttling
- Voltage switching
- Dynamic clock gating
Central thermal management – on-chip sensor monitors GPU temperature and triggers thermal actions as required

ATI Avivo HD Video and Display Platform

2nd generation Unified Video Decoder (UVD 2)
- Enabling hardware decode acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2
- Dual stream playback (or Picture-in-picture)
Hardware MPEG-1, and DivX video decode acceleration
- Motion compensation and IDCT
ATI Avivo Video Post Processor
- New enhanced DVD upconversion to HD new!
- New automatic and dynamic contrast adjustment new!
- Color space conversion
- Chroma subsampling format conversion
- Horizontal and vertical scaling
- Gamma correction
- Advanced vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing
- De-blocking and noise reduction filtering
- Detail enhancement
- Inverse telecine (2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction)
- Bad edit correction
- Full score in HQV (SD) and HQV (HD) video quality benchmarks
Two independent display controllers
- Drive two displays simultaneously with independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls and video overlays for each display
- Full 30-bit display processing
- Programmable piecewise linear gamma correction, color correction, and color space conversion
- Spatial/temporal dithering provides 30-bit color quality on 24-bit and 18-bit displays
- High quality pre- and post-scaling engines, with underscan support for all display outputs
- Content-adaptive de-flicker filtering for interlaced displays
- Fast, glitch-free mode switching
- Hardware cursor
Two integrated DVI display outputs
- Primary supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)
- Secondary supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI only)3
- Each includes a dual-link HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content4
Two integrated 400MHz 30-bit RAMDACs
- Each supports analog displays connected by VGA at all resolutions up to 2048x15363
DisplayPort output support
- Supports 24- and 30-bit displays at all resolutions up to 2560x16003
HDMI output support
- Supports all display resolutions up to 1920x10803
- Integrated HD audio controller with up to 2 channel 48 kHz stereo or multi-channel (7.1) AC3 enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution
Integrated AMD Xilleon HDTV encoder
- Provides high quality analog TV output (component/S-video/composite)
- Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions
- Underscan and overscan compensation
- MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264/AVC encoding and transcoding
- Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
- VGA mode support on all display outputs
ATI CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology
- Scale up rendering performance and image quality with two GPUs
- Integrated compositing engine
- High performance dual channel bridge interconnect

As the above list of specifications and features show, the new Radeon HD 4870 X2 has the exact same features as the Radeon HD 4870; it just has two GPUs. Like the other members of the Radeon HD 4800 series, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 offers DX10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support, the GPUs are manufactured on TSMC's 55nm process node, and both support ATI's CrossFireX multi-GPU technology.

Because we've covered essentially all of the shared features of the Radeon HD 4800 and 3800 series cards before, we won't be going into them in depth again here. However, we would recommend taking a look at a few recent articles to brush up on the tech if you're so inclined.

Perusing the sampling of articles above will lay the groundwork for much of what we'll be showing you on the pages ahead. But to reiterate some of what we explained in our initial coverage of the RV770, AMD is touting the GPU as the first solution to offer 1 TFLOPS of compute power, with higher clocked and multi-GPU offerings capable of even more.

AMD acheived this feat by increasing the population of the architecture's SP count from 320 on the older RV670 to a 800 on the RV770. AA and Z/Stencil performance were enhanced as well, and the number of texture units was increased from 16 to 40. The 800 stream processing units are grouped in a new SIMD core layout, and the texture units, ROPs, and cache have been restructured to minimize transistor count, while also increasing performance. With the RV770, AMD claims that the SPs in the GPU offer 40% more performance per square millimeter that the previous generation, and that more aggressive clock gating offers improved performance per watt as well. Likewise, the newly streamlined design of the RV770 texture units reportedly offer 70% more performance per square mm with double the texture cache bandwidth and large increases in 32- and 64-bit filter rates.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 280

2008-09-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

Get pulled deeper into the gaming experience and HD video than ever before with the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280 GPU. With this GPU, both performance and immersion are absolute.

Experience high definition worlds, lifelike characters, and forces of nature so powerful that your palms sweat and your heart races with every frame. Beyond games, watch Blu-ray movies and transcode video up to 7X faster than traditional CPUs¹.

Gaming that shakes you to the core
With more gaming horsepower than ever before and 1GB of memory, the GeForce GTX 280 GPU’s 240 processing cores make games such as Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Bionic Commando^® feel like the real thing. Its powerful NVIDIA PhysX^™ technology creates rich, immersive physical effects with stunningly accurate realism. Experience absolute immersion and a 50% pure performance boost than prior generation GPUs with the GeForce GTX 280 GPU.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. © 2008 Funcom, All rights Reserved, © 2008 Conan Properties International LLC. CONAN®, CONAN THE BARBARIAN® and related logos, characters, names, and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Conan Properties International LLC unless otherwise noted.

The power to take you beyond
Beyond the field of play, GeForce GTX 280 seamlessly shifts tasks from the CPU to the GPU, allowing you to dive into the latest Blu-ray movie, surf the web in 3D, or transcode video to a personal video player up to 7x faster than traditional CPUs¹. Now you can work and play at full speed.

1 – Requires application support for CUDA technology.

Note: The below specifications represent the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280 GPUs incorporated into NVIDIA's reference graphics card design. Graphics card specifications may vary by Add-in-card manufacturer. Please refer to the Add-in-card manufacturers' website for actual shipping specifications.


GPU Engine Specs:
Processor Cores	240
Graphics Clock (MHz)	602 MHz
Processor Clock (MHz)	1296 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec)	48.2

Memory Specs:
Memory Clock (MHz)	1107 MHz
Standard Memory Config	1GB GDDR3
Memory Interface Width	512-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)	141.7

Feature Support:
NVIDIA SLI®-ready¹	2-/3-way
NVIDIA PureVideo® Technology²	HD
NVIDIA PhysX™-ready³
NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology
GeForce Boost
Microsoft DirectX	10
OpenGL	2.1
Bus Support	PCI-E 2.0 x16
Certified for Windows Vista

Display Support:
Maximum Digital Resolution	2560 X 1600
Maximum VGA Resolution	2048 X 1536
Standard Display Connectors	2 dual-link DVI and 1 analog HDTV-out
Multi Monitor (# of displays)	2
HDCP⁴
HDMI⁵	Via Adapter
Audio Input for HDMI	SPDIF

Standard Graphics Card Dimensions:
Height	4.376 inches (111 mm)
Length	10.5 inches (267 mm)
Width	Dual-slot

Thermal and Power Specs:
Maximum GPU Temperature	105C
Maximum Graphics Card Power	236W
Minimum System Power Requirement	550W
Supplementary Power Connectors	One 8-pin + one 6-pin

For detailed features please click here. (72.6 KB PDF)

^{1 -}NVIDIA SLI certified versions of GeForce PCI Express GPUs only. A GeForce GPU must be paired with an identical GPU, regardless of graphics card manufacturer. SLI requires sufficient system cooling and a compatible power supply. Visit www.slizone.com for more information and a listing of SLI-Certified components.
^{2 -}Feature requires supported video software. Features may vary by product.
^{3 -}Certain GeForce GPUs ship with hardware support for NVIDIA PhysX technology. NVIDIA PhysX drivers are required to experience in-game GPU PhysX acceleration. Refer to www.nvidia.com/PhysX for more information.
^{4 -}Playback of HDCP-protected content requires other HDCP-compatible components.
^{5 -}Requires HDMI-compliant graphics card and DVI-to-HDMI adapter.

GIGABYTE gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 S775

2008-09-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

Intel^® X38 + ICH9R Chipset

Supports Intel^® Core 2™ multi-core and 45nm processors
Support for 1600 MHz FSB.
Dual Channel DDR2 1200 memory support for outstanding system performance.
High quality CPU power module with Ferrite Core Chokes, Lower RDS (on) MOSFETs and Lower ESR Solid Capacitors.
Re-engineered Thermal Design featuring All Copper Silent-Pipe and Crazy Cool.
Japanese manufactured SMD All Solid Capacitor motherboard design.
Supports CrossFire™ with Dual PCI-E 2.0 x16 graphics for extreme gaming performance.
Features SATA 3Gb/s with Quad eSATA 2 interface .
ALC889A with DTS Connect enables high quality Full Rate Lossless Audio and support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
Quad BIOS for an extended level of protection.
Quad-Triple Phase Power Design for ultimate system stability.
Dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN with Teaming functionality.
Certified for Microsoft VISTA™ systems.

* Please refer "Memory Support List" for memory support information.

Overview


		Introduction The GA-X38-DQ6 is GIGABYTE next generation, high performance platform based on the killer combination of the new Intel X38 chipset plus support for the latest multi-core processors up to FSB 1600MHz, including the upcoming 45nm platform. In addition to setting new records for blistering performance, the GA-X38-DQ6 features an all-new copper Silent Pipe thermal solution for both the chipset and CPU power MOSFET, dramatically reducing the temperature around the CPU. The GA-X38-DQ6 is also part of the GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 2 Series of motherboards, featuring top quality electronic components which provide optimized power savings, ultra cooling and extended system durability.

		Ultra Durable 2 -Designed with Top Quality Highly Efficient Components Ultra Cooling - Low RDS(on) MOSFET Design Low RDS(on) MOSFETs specially designed to produce lower switching resistance for faster electric current charging and discharging. Low Power Loss - Ferrite Core Choke Design Ferrite core chokes comprised of a compound of iron oxide and other metal elements whose properties hold energy much longer than common iron core at high frequency. Longer Life - All-Solid Capacitor Design Solid capacitors contain a solid organic polymer, while electrolytic capacitors use a common liquid electrolyte, hence, the terms solid capacitor versus electrolytic capacitors.

		Intel^® Core™ 2 multi-core and upcoming 45nm processors GA-X38-DQ6 supports Intel latest high performance CPU delivers the most energy-efficient performance available today. Based on Intel's Micro Architecture, the Intel multi-core processors with 4 cores and two shared L2 caches provide the best capability-per-watt solutions and are an ideal choice for multi-media enthusiasts and intensive multi-tasking environments. This cutting-edge processor offers significant performance boosts and provides an overall more energy efficient platform.

		Intel^® X38 Express Chipset The Intel^® X38 Express Chipsets support the latest multi-core processors with FSB 1066MHz, including the upcoming 45nm processors, with its record breaking performance and greater energy efficiency. Intel^® X38 chipset, with optimized system memory capabilities, chipset over-speed protection removed for maximum overclocking, providing faster boot and application load times and additional power savings. Intel^® X38 chipset also offer options for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory support, providing scalable options for users wanting to take advantage of higher memory performance with less power consumption to run next generation applications such as high-definition video and 3D visualization.

		Smaller, Faster and More Efficient GA-X38-DQ6 motherboards paired with Intel 45nm CPUs deliver the very best platform for multitasking, multimedia and high performance gaming. Not only do GIGABYTE's latest motherboards based on Intel Bearlake chipsets (including P35/P31/G33/G31) all support Intel's new generation, 45nm multi-core processors.

		Windows Vista Premium Logo Certified Windows Vista Premium promises to deliver a streamlined computing experience designed to fundamentally change how users view, find and organize their digital information. With X38/G33/P965/G965/946/945 solutions all enabling support for Vista Premium, GIGABYTE offers a fresh and unique desktop experience that will be more informative, intuitive and completely new...more

		Dual Channel DDR2 1200 Experience the advanced technology of DDR2 1200 memory, featuring faster speeds and higher data bandwidth, which delivers superior performance for the most demanding applications. * Please refer "Memory Support List" for memory support information.

		PCI-E 2.0 Interface PCI-E 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 2.5 Gbit/s to 5 Gbit/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GB/s in each direction. PCIe 2.0 also features improvements to the point-to-point data transfer protocol and its software architecture.

		SATA 3Gb/s storage interface The SATA specification doubles bus bandwidth from 1.5Gb/s to 3Gb/s. Native Command Queuing is a new specification that enables out-of-order execution of commands for efficient retrieval of data. Hot Plug support allows users to insert and remove hard disk drives without shutting off power to the system.

		IEEE1394 motherboard This motherboard with IEEE1394 FireWire interface from Texas Instruments (TI). With the transfer speed up to 400Mb/s, the new generation IEEE1394 interface further enhances PC connectivity with consumer electronics audio/video (A/V) appliances, and storage peripherals.

		ALC889A with DTS Connect Enables a Superior Audio Experience Excellent Audio Performance High-performance DAC (Digital-Analog Converter) with 106 dB Signal-to-Noise ratio playback quality, designed especially for Windows Vista Premium PCs. Blu-ray/HD DVD Full Rate Audio Support The ALC889A enables high quality Full Rate Lossless Audio for content protected media and support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats for an exhilarating home theater entertainment experience. 7.1+2 Channel High Definition Output The ALC889A provides support for 7.1 sound playback, plus 2 channels of independent stereo output (multiple streaming) through the front panel stereo outputs.

		ATI CrossFireX With support for ATI CrossFireX, GIGABYTE pushes the envelope once again by delivering highly optimized performance and flexibility demanded by power users and extreme gaming enthusiasts. Designed to provide unmatched multi-GPU support with dual PCI Express connectivity, the GA-X38-DQ6 allows users to take advantage of the ultra smooth 3D rendering, blazing-fast frame rates and enhanced visual quality possible with a dual graphics card solution. Attention: When attempting to enable ATI CrossfireX Technology on this board. In case of unable to get Crossfire Technology working normally, please make sure to use ATI graphic cards that have hardware Crossfire bridge. (Please refer to ATI official website for more Crossfire Technology supporting details: http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/charts.html)

		Intel^® Matrix Storage Technology Intel^® Matrix Storage Technology, can deliver up to 80% faster storage performance with PCs equipped with two hard drives using RAID 0 data striping. Using RAID 1 data mirroring can protect against a hard drive failure by mirroring all data among two hard drives. In addition RAID 5 offers the fault-tolerant capability to automatically back up your most important files, while also providing faster disk access and adding storage capacity.

		Doubles the bandwidth The GA-X38-DQ6 with Teaming functionality enabled allows the 2 single connections to act as a single connection for twice the bandwidth, improving overall throughput with lower CPU utilization. Network fault tolerance Prevents network downtime by transferring the workload from a failed port to a working port. (Note) To enable Teaming or Bonding (IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation) feature, it is required the connected network switch or router device supports 802.3.ad LACP function. Please refer to your network switch or router device manual for further details.

		Gigabit LAN connectivity The Gigabit network interface delivers a high speed LAN connection with data transfer rate up to 1000Mb/s, providing new generation connectivity for the broadband era. Gigabit LAN is ideally for seamless internet connection such as streaming audio and video contents

		RoHS compliant As a member of the global community to look after the environment, Gigabyte complies with the European Union's Restriction of use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive which limits the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and other hazardous substances in electronic products. From components and material selection to production processes, make up of accessories, packaging/color boxes etc; GIGABYTE has carefully examined and designed this product to be 100% RoHS compliant. GIGABYTE will continue to develop RoHS compliant PC components and commit valuable resources to promoting and advancing RoHS directive goals and objectives.

		Quad BIOS Quad BIOS is a feature unique to GIGABYTE that includes DualBIOS™ and Express BIOS Rescue Technology. This combination delivers a safety assurance mechanism that sports a total of 4 copies of BIOS distributed between the Flash ROM, hard-disk and driver CD. This feature helps to reduce the affects of virus attacks or firmware damage and provides multi-layer BIOS protection that assures greater PC platform stability. How does Quad BIOS work?

		Quad Cooling This revolutionary cooling design combines Crazy Cool and Silent-Pipe technology that includes heat sinks covering MOSFET modules, the north bridge and the south bridge. Additionally, the Crazy Cool enhances heat dissipation of the rear side of CPU and north bridge of the motherboard. Quad Cooling allows users to enjoy longer component lifetime through lower temperatures and absolute silence combined with the ultimate thermal performance on chipsets, CPU power components and the PCB.

		Quad e-SATA2 Four sets of external SATA ports based on the Serial ATA 3Gb/s storage specification allow effortless sharing and transfer of entertainment content and digital media on external devices. Designed for external SATA devices, Quad eSATA 2 delivers enhanced scalability and double the bus bandwidth for high-speed data retrieval and saving On-The-Go.

		Quad Triple Phase An exclusive feature found only on GIGABYTE motherboards, this unique design incorporates Virtual 12 Power Phases to deliver steadier power and immediate current support for the CPU during heavy work loads or over-clocking. Additionally, Quad-Triple Phase helps to improve component lifespan system stability by delivering lower component temperature.

		Quad-Core Optimized GIGABYTE has implemented optimized Quad-Core FSB routing and a Quad-Triple phase power design to ensure the highest levels of performance and stability from Quad-Core processors. With 4 cores and 2 shared L2 caches, Quad-Core processors provide the industry's best capability-per-watt solutions, delivering significant performance boosts and extended energy efficiency, making them the ideal choice for multi-media enthusiasts and intensive multi-tasking environments.

		Silent-Pipe The revolutionary Silent-Pipe Technology compliant GIGABYTE motherboards featuring 0dB soundless heat-pipe thermal cooling solution, convergence with GIGABYTE Crazy Cool Technology, enhances heat dissipation efficiency from the critical Chipsets and CPU power components...more

		CrossFire™ With support for CrossFire™, GIGABYTE pushes the envelope once again by delivering highly optimized performance and flexibility demanded by power users and extreme gaming enthusiasts. Designed to provide unmatched multi-GPU support with dual PCI Express connectivity, the GA-X38-DQ6 allows users to take advantage of the ultra smooth 3D rendering, blazing-fast frame rates and enhanced visual quality possible with a dual graphics card solution.

		Speed The Speed compliant motherboards of GIGABYTE S-series provide intelligent over-clocking and over-voltage software settings through both hardware and software design...more

		Smart The Smart featured motherboards of GIGABYTE S-series provide GIGABYTE proprietary innovative software such as Download Center, @BIOS, Q-Flash, Xpress Install, Boot menu, and Smart Fan. BIOS and driver management now becomes much easier and user friendly through GIGABYTE Smart features!...more

		Safe Safe is the key feature of GIGABYTE S-series motherboards with the following elements: Excellent hardware design reinforced BIOS protection through GIGABYTE Virtual Dual BIOS Technology and GIGABYTE BIOS Setting Recovery Technology. Unique system software such as Xpress Recovery 2, PC Health Monitor, HDD S.M.A.R.T., and C.O.M. further strengthen the stability and reliability of your PC!...more

* The specification and pictures are subject to change without notice.
* All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders.
* Due to standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount.

Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard and X5 Mouse Introduced for Gamers

2008-09-22T03:45:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has some new gaming peripherals in their kitty for PC gamers and the new devices are not correlated to Xbox 360 gaming console. Under the SideWinder range, Microsoft has unveiled X5 Mouse and X6 Keyboard.

Featuring Cruise Control, the X6 keyboard assures continuous action without the need to hold down the key or keys assigned to the action. Interestingly, players can take advantage of Cruise Control with up to four keys simultaneously. On pressing the in-game macro record button, players can record any sequence of keystrokes.

As gamers are more comfortable in playing by using the WASD arrow keys, Microsoft has incorporated front-face lighting for these keys on the X6 that boasts to enhance visibility. Gamers can also make use of the Quick-Launch key that promises to provide one-touch access to Windows Vista Games Explorer and enables them to see the games in their computer’s game library quickly.

According to Kevin Flick, user researcher for Microsoft Hardware, “We know that consumers don’t want to pull out and set up a second keyboard for a gaming session, so we created a device that was perfect for both gaming and regular computer use. With the switchable key pad, gamers will have a fantastic, customizable experience whether they’re playing their favorite game or creating Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentations.”

Next is in line is the new X5 mouse, which offers a fast and powerful performance. The features that make the X5 a high-end gaming peripheral are adjustable sensitivity that switches up to 2,000 DPI, five customizable buttons, and a Quick-Launch button that instantaneously launches the Windows Vista Games Explorer.

The SideWinder X6 Keyboard is priced at $79.95 (approx. Rs. 3,477) and SideWinder X5 Mouse for $59.95 (approx. Rs. 2,607).

BTC 9051H Cheetah Professional Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Kit unveiled

2008-09-22T03:41:00.000-07:00

Behavior Tech Computer Corp (BTC), a leading keyboard and mouse manufacturer in Taiwan, has introduced the 9051H Cheetah Professional Gaming Keyboard and Mouse kit.

The keyboard boasts 17 individual keys, which are dedicated for gaming input commands. These keys are ergonomically designed. Further the keyboard is equipped with two sets of user customized commands configured in A and B memory modes. These modes can be set up for different games or for different characters in the same game.

Besides, the 9051H gaming keyboard has multicolored backlight technology that can be enabled at the press of a hotkey. When the keyboard is in idle mode, the backlight illuminates blue light, while the light turns red when the gamer presses hotkeys too frequently in the game.

On the other hand, the 9051H mouse features a true 2000dpi Laser sensor enabling movement speeds of 2 times that of a standard 800dpi optical sensor. Like the keyboard’s backlight, even the mouse’s scroll wheel changes color according to its usage. A green light will be illuminated when the mouse is working on 800 dpi, blue on 1300 dpi and red when dpi is 2000.

Moreover, the mouse is equipped with two programmable gaming buttons - Virtual-Run button and Wave Action button. The Wave Action button enables firing forever with just one click and the holding Virtual-run button will lead to 180 degree turnaround to easily defeat the opponent.

As of now, there is no word regarding pricing and availability.

Logitech G9 Laser Mouse and Upgraded G15 Gaming Keyboard unveiled

2008-04-23T03:23:00.000-07:00

Logitech is one of the best peripheral makers in the world and now they are out to dominate the gaming peripheral market too. They have introduced the Logitech G9 Laser mouse, which takes customization to the extreme and the upgraded Logitech G15 gaming keyboard.

Logitech Upgraded G15 Gaming Keyboard

Both these beauties have great features that will get all the gamers drooling over it. The upgraded G15 keyboard has native support from the most popular games like WoW and Battlefield 2142 for the GamePanel LCD screen, which is a back lighted 160 by 43 pixel screen that gives gamers serious information. It features six on-the-fly programmable macro keys with three modes, for a total of 18 programmable keys per game or application. Oh yes, it also comes with a public software development kit (SDK) that allows users to program any game to control GamePanel for better performance. In fact, the G15 has different combinations of keys for different games, which means it activates game-specific settings when a programmed title is launched. Logitech G15 is very compact thereby offering gamers more space on their desk

Logitech G9 Laser Mouse

As for the Logitech G9 mouse, it has two interchangeable grips, Wide-Load grip and Precision grip. What’s more, G9 mouse permits customized weight tuning and weight distribution. It even has the new Logitech SetPoint software Version 5.0, which lets gamers make a number of profiles for their mouse. Logitech has put onboard memory in the G9 mouse, which does not force them to install SetPoint software on the gaming rig every time they change computers. It also features the MicroGear Precision Scroll Wheel that lets gamers select between precise click-to-click scrolling or nearly frictionless hyper-fast scrolling. It offers a range from 200 dpi up to 3200 dpi. The full-speed USB connection presents up to 1,000 reports per second for smooth tracking without cursor lag.

Rory Dooley is the Logitech senior vice president and general manager of the Control Devices business unit. He explains, “Like professional athletes, PC gamers need equipment tailored to their body and their individual playing style. Gamers tell us over and over that they love to tweak their gear to achieve best performance. Nearly every dimension of the G9 Laser Mouse is customizable, letting gamers to set up their mice exactly the way they want. Whether playing a first-person shooter game or a multi-player fantasy game, the G9 mouse, along with the newly refreshed Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard, gives PC gamers a winning combination.”

Logitech has stated that both, the G9 Laser Mouse and Upgraded G15 Gaming Keyboard will be available in September at the cost of $99.99 (approx. Rs. 4050) each.

Everglide DKTBoard Gaming Keyboard Powered by Razer

2008-04-23T03:18:00.000-07:00

Manufacturer of high-end precision gaming peripherals Razer has sent word about the newest product under the ‘Powered by Razer’ initiative, the Everglide DKTBoard.

Everglide DKTBoard Gaming Keyboard

Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff is the president of Razer. He quoted, “The Everglide DKTBoard joins an exciting circle of product luminaries. Other products part of the ‘Powered by Razer’ initiative include the Microsoft Habu gaming mouse, the Microsoft Reclusa gaming keyboard and the Belkin n52te speedpad. The DKTBoard will bear the ‘Powered by Razer’ insignia, which means gamers can expect a premium product well catered to their needs.”

Iliana X, Senior VP, Global Sales, Everglide said, “We had heard about ‘Powered by Razer’ and it was perfect for Everglide’s new business plans. As a leader in high-end precision gaming peripherals, Razer provided the technological expertise and invaluable suggestions to the DKTBoard. The DKTBoard is now ready for retail and we are confident of its uptake amid the gaming community.”

The Powered by Razer program has been initiated by the high-end precision gaming and lifestyle electronics peripherals maker to work with computer industry partners who are interested in obtaining an edge in computer gaming hardware. There is also the Go Pro with Razer’ program that is community-driven. It develops new talent for the gaming industry by helping hopeful gamers become professional gamers.

Allienware: Area-51 ALX CFX(Gaming PC)

2008-04-05T23:39:00.000-07:00

45 Nanometers of Quad-Core Glory

With more than 800 million transistors for quad-core, the new 45nm Core 2 Extreme introduces new microarchetecture features for greater performance. Some of these advanced new features include: greater performance at all previous given frequencies, up to 50-percent larger L2 caches, and expanded power management capabilities for new levels of energy efficiency. Also new to the next generation 45nm Core 2 Extreme are nearly 50 new Intel SSE4 instructions for speeding up the performance of media and high performance applications.

Let Alienware Push Your System to the Limit

The Area-51 ALX system is now available with the quad core Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 overclocked from 3.0GHz to 4.0 GHz core clock speed! Alienware factory overclocking increases your processor’s overall speed and performance. Alienware assures that all its overclocked systems still meet Alienware’s strict quality and performance guidelines before leaving the factory. Alienware factory overclocking does not void your system warranty.

Get Caught in the CrossFireX

The New ATI® Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 in CrossFireX™ technology is the DirectX® 10 screaming graphics firepower that ALX customers have been waiting for. These power-packed dual GPU graphics cards provide the stunning realism and immersive visual quality that propels you deep into your gameplay. Quad 512MB of GDDR3 onboard memory, and PCI-Express 2.0™ x16 GPU bus interface graphics compatibility, makes sure your next-gen DX10 games can get cranked up to their maximum settings without experiencing any lag in framerates. The new revolution in gaming graphics is Quad GPU technology.

More than ever before

Cram all your digital pictures, movies, games, and music, into the massive hard drives on the Area-51 and still have room to spare. With up to 4 terabytes of storage you’ll never have to worry about storage space.

DDR3 Memory is Here

The Area-51 ALX with the Intel X38 chipset is equipped with the new standard in high performance memory, Patriot Extreme Performance Enhanced Latency DDR3. DDR3 carries an average of 30% less power consumption and higher memory bandwidth than DDR2. These features allows for RAM clock speeds up to 1333MHz to 1600MHz.

Blu-ray Disc Technology

The Blu-ray Disc format offers the highest capacity of any consumer media format to date, also greatly surpassing the capacity of other media formats. Blu-ray Disc gives you the maximum storage capability of 50GB on one dual layer disc, almost 10x the standard storage capabilities of a DVD. Blu-ray Disc's huge capacity allows not only for the highest quality High Definition video to be displayed, but allows you back up your large media libraries on one disc.

NVIDIA Quadro® FX 5600

2008-04-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

NVIDIA Quadro ultra-high-end graphic solutions enable you to solve the most complex visual computing challenges.

The Quadro FX 5600 features a ground-breaking unified architecture delivering optimized CAD, DCC, and visualization application performance.

Featuring:

* Industry’s first 1.5GB frame buffer
* Massive memory bandwidth up to 76.8 GBps
* Interactive visualization of the largest 64-bit datasets
* C programming environment for the GPU

ATI Radeon™ X800(Graphic Card)

2008-04-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

Massive Performance and Innovative Image Technology

The Radeon™ X800 graphics technology, award-winning 3D performance, with up to 16 pipelines, higher clock speeds and breakthrough image enhancement technology, Radeon™ X800 Graphics Technology introduced a whole new gaming category called High-Definition Gaming.

Ground-Breaking Speed
Radeon™ X800 Graphics Technology delivers frame rates that surpass all previous graphics processors and up to two times the performance of the acclaimed Radeon™ 9800 PRO. Radeon™ X800 graphics technology provides an extremely smooth, responsive HD gaming experience, putting capable gamers in complete control of even the most demanding game titles. A new architecture based on the latest .13 micron, low-k manufacturing process with ultra fast and efficient GDDR3 memory combine to produce extreme data rates and unbelievable acceleration in a quiet, cool, single-slot solution.

Breakthrough Image Quality
Radeon™ X800 Graphics Technology defined a totally new High-Definition Gaming experience for the avid gamer by maximizing performance and image quality in higher detail and at higher resolutions than ever before. ATI‘s 3Dc™ image enhancement technology brings characters to life and scenery to greater realism by enabling significant improvements to the image detail of character art with increased performance and lower memory usage.3Dc™ is the industry standard to support more complex high-definition visual effects in real time.

Technologically Advanced 3D Architecture
Radeon™ X800 graphics technology features SmartShader™ HD, the most advanced pixel shader engine with up to 16 parallel pixel pipelines capable of an incredible 6 gigapixels/second fill rate in full precision! With six programmable vertex shader pipelines, capable of up to 700 million vertices per second and an overall capability of over 200 billion floating point operations per second(Giga FLOPS), Radeon™ X800 Graphics Technology delivers beautifully rendered high-definition 3D animation for intense, interactive game play.

Cutting Edge Video Technology
Radeon™ X800 graphics technology gives you more than just a great gaming experience. It also has sophisticated video processing, filtering and acceleration features that make multimedia applications more efficient, inspiring and fun. With VideoShader™ HD, Radeon™ X800 graphics technology takes advantage of its advanced shader processing engine for user programmable video effects, video quality enhancement, and encoding and decoding of many video standards, including MPEG1/2/4, Real Media, DivX and WMV9. Radeon™ X800 Graphics Technology also supports the latest high-definition and wide display formats, giving users bigger and more vivid movie, gaming and Internet experiences.

DirectX® 9.0 Leadership Continues
Over the past several years ATI has established a legacy of providing the highest performing Microsoft® DirectX® graphics card solutions. Radeon™ X800 graphics technology offers unparalleled DirectX® 9.0 and OpenGL® 2.0 shader support to ensure that current and upcoming games look and play brilliantly, especially in high-definition.

Stability is the foundation of the Radeon™ X800 Graphics Technology
Acclaimed by industry leaders, ATI’s award winning ATI Catalyst™ software driver suite optimizes the graphics processor performance of ATI’s desktop products while ensuring maximum stability and user control. ATI Catalyst™ provides frequent driver updates backed by ATI customer support, to ensure complete satisfaction.

Radeon™ X800 is certified by Imaging Science Research Labs Inc.
The Imaging Science Research Labs (ISF RL) certification and logo identify ATI’s Media Center Edition-ready products as best-in-class multimedia components, tested and verified to meet a superior level of technical performance, and the approval of the most discerning eye and ear.

Tapwave Zodiac 2 - Gaming PDA

2008-04-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

PalmSource has been steadily licensing its operating system to third parties for a while. PalmOne is probably the best known of the licensees, but there are others, including Tapwave, whose Zodiac has been available in the USA for the best part of a year. Though it has cooked up a storm in terms of positive press reviews stateside, it has taken until now for a European launch to take place.

I got hold of one of the first units to hit the UK and though pricing is not yet finalised or distribution deals signed on the dotted line, UK high street availability looks set.

I actually received a Zodiac 2, which differs from the original Zodiac in having 128MB of internal memory as opposed to 32MB and a slightly different casing colour. Yes, that was 128MB of memory, the most I’ve come across on a Palm OS device by some margin. Even Sony never matched this when it was distributing Cliés in the UK. 12MB is reserved for system use (on both incarnations of the Zodiac), so our review unit had 116MB available to the user. There are two SD card slots, one of which has SDIO support so you can expand on the memory and add hardware extras – a WiFi card to supplement the built in Bluetooth is expected ‘soon’.

Think Palm PDA and you may think about the built in applications: Address, Date Book, Memo Pad, and so on. Running as it does Palm OS 5.2T (the T stands for Tapwave), these are present on the Zodiac 2, but its primary aim is to be a Mobile Entertainment Console.

Hold the beautifully designed anodised aluminium deep grey hardware in the hand so that its screen is in landscape format, and on the right of the screen sit four action buttons. On the left you’ll find a 360-degree analogue controller, while the top left and right edges provide two ‘trigger’ buttons. It’s definitely a control array made for gamers.

Tapwave has placed its own MP3 player and photo viewer on ROM, and for user installation provides the Kinoma video player and Palm Reader among its software extras. Those wanting to use the Zodiac for serious stuff should note that the word processor WordSmith is provided – though only a 50-use limited version. PC Desktop software is also included, and Outlook synchronisation is provided by the Palm standby Chapura PocketMirror. There is no synchronisation software for Mac users.

I suspect the Bluetooth provision is more for multiplayer gaming than for communication. There is no email software, though a Web browser and SMS software are present for self-installation, and there is direct support for only three Bluetooth phones.

The Zodiac 2 has two processors. The main Motorola Arm9 processor is supplemented by one devoted to graphics processing. ATI’s Imageon 4200 has its own 8MB of memory to help it speed along.

There are stereo speakers one on each side of the screen. Output can be sent to a headset via a 3.5mm jack from the Yamaha audio processor. The screen itself is very nice, with a high quality 16bit colour display. The screen is touch sensitive, and the stylus lives in a hollow at the back of the casing. I managed to mislay mine twice within a week, which may not have happened if the Zodiac 2 were provided with a protective case.

Tapwave has devised its own user interface, rather nicely done so that it groups similar applications together on a ‘radial menu’. There is a centre icon and eight others connected to it by graphical ‘spokes’. You can customise the applications on the menu as well as the colour scheme used. It’s easy enough to see everything on the ROM and either SD card with a single tap.

Palm Applications run in a square area in both landscape and portrait formats, with the Graffiti area removable to allow for full-screen running if apps support this. A small row of icons linked to the Graffiti area allow for volume changes, screen orientation flipping and other odds and ends. All pretty standard features that we’ve seen in other Palm OS hardware.

The Zodiac ships with two games, Acid Solitaire and StuntCar Extreme. These are pretty basic, though the latter shows off the vibrate feature which adds effect to some games. I was provided with an array of commercial titles including Doom, Duke Nukem, Tony Hawks Pro Skater, Mini Golf, Breakout and several others. In general they play surprisingly well, and sound output is good, especially through headphones.

While I found nothing to grumble about with regard to the Zodiac 2’s turn of speed, it was clear that the controls are better for some games than others. I guess that’s always the case with handheld gaming hardware, though. Of more concern is that I’ve played some of the games so often on other platforms that it felt a bit like there was nothing new to see here.

Software support really matters for the Zodiac 2. The hardware is compatible with the oodles and oodles of Palm applications out there, but what buyers are really going to want is games from commercial high-fliers designed to take advantage of the comparatively strong sound and graphics features. In this respect, the list of titles available via www.tapwave.com is OK, but not vast.

Games development for newer platforms is a bit chicken and egg. For developers to get interested there needs to be lots of devices out there forming a good potential market. For lots of people to buy the hardware it needs to be enticing, which in this case, as the Zodiac 2 is in no small part a gaming platform, means there needs to be lots of games. I suspect the momentum needs to come from the hardware provider in this case, which means Tapwave has to get its thinking cap on.

Battery life is important with any handheld, and no gamer wants their device to fail mid-way through a session. I used BatteryBench to test the life of the Zodiac 2 putting it through the same paces I’d put a standard Palm OS device through in order to get a comparison. At Full Power I got three hours 56 minutes of life, at Normal Use I got 7 hours 25 minutes. That’s pretty good in comparison to other Palm based handhelds, but gaming is power hungry and I doubt serious players will get a day’s fun out of a full charge.

The Zodiac 2 would make a fine Palm based PDA. Its large screen and huge memory capacity make it ideal for the software hoarders among us. The MP3 player turns out good quality sound – better through headphones than the speakers – and the 3.5mm jack will please owners of superior headphones. The hardware itself has superb build and finish. The Zodiac certainly delivers a better gaming experience than any other Palm PDA I’ve seen, but its games library is small and needs to grow fast.

Verdict

A sleek, stylish and innovative product that blends the practical uses of a PDA with a mobile games machine. With an estimated price of around £300 it’s not as cheap as a games system, but it’s comparable to HP’s latest consumer focussed PDAs. If Tapwave can convince more games developers to get on board, this could be a great pocket solution.

Playstation 2 Slim

2008-04-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

Product Summary

The good: Huge library of games; svelte design; built-in networking/modem ports and remote sensor; doubles as a CD/DVD player; free online gaming with select titles.

The bad: Top-loading disc tray; only two controller ports; no hard disk expansion option; Xbox's graphics capabilities are superior.

The bottom line: Sony's slimmed-down, network-ready PS2 is a welcome update to the world's most popular video game console.

Specs: Product Description: Sony PlayStation 2 Slim - Game console; Media Type: CD-ROM, DVD-ROM; Processor: Toshiba & Sony Emotion Engine 294.9 MHz

Sony PSP Slim

2008-04-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

The good: Lighter, slimmer, and sleeker update of the original PSP; AV output for video and game playback on TVs; improved load times for games; retains all of the impressive media and online features of the original PSP; deep lineup of great game titles that offer better graphics than Nintendo DS games.

The bad: Despite improvements, problems and annoyances remain: UMD load times still poky compared to Flash-based DS games; volume levels still less than optimal; limited gameplay options via video output; USB charging option is cumbersome; screen is still too reflective and a magnet for fingerprints; subtle redesign missed the opportunity to add even more features.

The bottom line: While it may not be a must-have upgrade for existing PSP owners, a host of subtle improvements make the latest Sony PSP (aka the PSP 2000) an even better deal for anyone looking for a solid portable gaming and multimedia device.

Specs: Product Description: Sony PSP Slim & Lite - Handheld game system; Form Factor: Handheld; Media Type: UMD (Universal Media Disc) See full specs >>

Price range: $169.99 - $202.29

Nintendo DS Lite

2008-04-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

Our original review of the Nintendo DS listed only one 'We don't like' characteristic: 'Somewhat bulky'. Whether it was because of early fan discord or because Nintendo has a propensity to redesign its handheld systems, the aforementioned complaint was addressed with a signature Nintendo remodelling. The Nintendo DS has been slimmed down and brightened up, and it's been injected with a serious shot of style.

Rechristened, the DS Lite attempts to make the same fashion statement for videogame systems that the iPod did for MP3 players. Like the iPod, the DS Lite is available in two colours, white and black, which is exclusive to Europe. For the time being the US only has the white version, while Japan boasts navy and 'ice blue' versions. For the impatient and iPod-white averse, the system is completely region-free and supports multiple languages, so you could import a Japanese navy DS Lite and have no problem playing all of your European games.

The DS Lite is released in the UK and Europe on 23 June with an RRP of £99.99. It can be pre-ordered from various online retailers now.

Design
The Nintendo DS Lite, like the original Nintendo DS, is a portable gaming system with two vertically tiered screens. On the bottom is a touch screen that allows you to use a stylus or a finger for anything from selecting options to moving characters. There's also a normal face-button layout that allows a more standard method of control.

The system plays its own proprietary cartridges (which are somewhere between SD and CompactFlash cards in size), in addition to its near-full backward compatibility with Game Boy Advance (GBA) titles -- the system will not play multiplayer modes of GBA games, unfortunately. While DS cartridges are much smaller in capacity than the Sony PSP's UMDs, they play without the often unbearable load times of Sony's proprietary format.

As its name suggests, the Nintendo DS Lite is a much more compactly designed system -- at 133 by 72 by 21mm when closed and weighing in at 217g, it's 39 per cent smaller and 21 per cent lighter than its predecessor. The rounded corners are more finely tapered, and the top and bottom sides are symmetrical, avoiding the underbite-like look of the original's oversized bottom half. It's a much more pocket-friendly system than the original DS. Despite the smaller overall size, though, the trademark twin screens have the same dimensions.

The layout of the DS Lite is largely similar to that of the Nintendo DS, with some slight, beneficial changes. The top half of the clamshell still houses the stereo speakers. They're centred on either side of the upper screen, and despite being smaller than those on the original DS, they're just as loud. The bottom screen is a little more conducive to touch, but it feels flimsier -- almost as if you've kept the protective thin-film screen that overlays many LCDs when they ship from the factory. To the left of the touch screen is the D-pad, which is about three-quarters the size of the original, but just as efficient.

The four face buttons (X, Y, A and B) are essentially the same but feel a little more pronounced than those of the original DS. No longer half-ovals on top, the start and select buttons are now tiny circles on the bottom. The power button has moved from just above the D-pad to the right side of the system. It's a welcome change, as the original looked exactly like the select and start buttons and was situated in the same area on the opposite side -- which led to the occasional turn-off-instead-of-pause blunder.

The front of the system is basically unchanged -- from left to right, the volume control, the GBA game slot and the in-line-enabled headphone port are in the same spots. Formerly slightly above the front of the system, the microphone has been moved to the hinge between screens. In instances where you need to look at the bottom screen while using the mic, you may need to retrain yourself.

The back end of the system is basically the same. The only thing that's moved is the stylus holder, which is on the back of the system, to the left of the power switch. It looks a little more discreet and the stylus fits more snugly. The left and right triggers are slightly smaller, but like the face buttons, they're more pronounced and easier to press. The DS cartridge slot is centred at the top, and the AC power port is off to the left. The system includes an AC adaptor, two styli that match the Lite's colour, and a smaller wrist strap that -- annoyingly -- does not include the thumbpad of the original.

The GBA slot has undergone some slight changes. In place of an empty cartridge slot, Nintendo includes a plastic cover that looks like a half-size GBA game. While it seems like it'll often be lost (think battery covers), it looks pretty sleek and serves to obscure one of the few design flaws of the DS Lite: GBA games stick out of the cartridge slot by about a centimetre, whereas the original DS fit the cartridges perfectly. But it doesn't impede gameplay in the slightest, and it's not the ugliest-looking setup. And considering that the DS is backwards compatible with hundreds of GBA games, it's a small price to pay.

A bigger problem with the DS Lite is that its high-gloss finish is a magnet for fingerprints. Imported navy blue DS Lites we've seen have been constantly smudged, so Nintendo's failure to include even a rudimentary cleaning cloth or carrying case is notable. Although this doesn't really apply to the white DS Lite, it will be true of the black version. Hopefully some protection options will soon be available. On the plus side, the clamshell design means the DS Lite travels well, limiting the scratches and marks to the exterior while the two screens remain fully protected.

Features
Introduced about a year after the system launched, Wi-Fi compatibility on the DS is surprisingly solid for a free service hosted by a company known for its aversion to online gaming. Whether on the original DS or the DS Lite, the Wi-Fi setup is simple, as the system can spot most wireless connections. If there are none nearby, you can create one from a broadband-connected PC by attaching the Nintendo USB Wi-Fi Connector to it. Without an external online network such as Xbox Live, finding friends is unwieldy -- you have to enter 12-digit 'friend codes' for each game for which you wish to create a buddy list.

Playing against nonfriends is hit-or-miss -- you won't find a game to join as fast as you will on an online console such as the Xbox 360, but as long as you're on a popular game during a reasonable hour, you should be able to locate competition. Over the course of an early evening, we were able to find several opponents in Tetris DS. The microphone lends itself to voice chat, but as of right now, only Metroid Prime: Hunters employs between-match chatter. Local wireless is, of course, much more reliable, with the added benefit of allowing multiplayer via a single cartridge. GBA multiplayer games won't play head-to-head over the wireless connection, and the lack of a link cable port means you can't have a wired bond to older GBAs or Nintendo's GameCube unless Nintendo releases yet another adaptor that interfaces with the DS Lite's proprietary power port.

The games for the DS Lite are of decent graphical quality -- better than the PS1/N64 but nowhere near Xbox/PS2/GameCube standards. It also pales in comparison to PSP games. Where the DS Lite really earns its stripes is the innovative quality of its titles. Whereas PSP games feel much like their console cousins, the DS Lite's dual- and touch-screen setup allows for some truly unique gameplay, whether it's drawing your own Pac-Man in Namco's Pac Pix or performing surgery via stylus in Atlus's Trauma Center: Under the Knife. That said, not many of the other third-party software developers are up to the challenge of taking full advantage of the DS's capabilities. For every Nintendo-produced hit such as Nintendogs or Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, there are several barely updated GBA ports or slightly downgraded PSP ports -- neither of which make much use of the touch- and dual-screen technology.

The DS systems lack the video and audio playback and Web-surfing functions of the PSP, at least in Europe. Nintendo-supported solutions for both -- the Play-Yan media player and Opera Web browser respectively -- have or will soon appear in Japan, though the European release status of both products is currently unknown. We will update this review accordingly when and if the products arrive here.

Performance
The DS Lite has four brightness settings, up from two on the original DS. At the darkest setting, the DS Lite is just as bright as the original DS, at its max, it's almost as brilliant as the Game Boy Advance SP. Playing a GBA game on both systems, we noticed that the DS Lite's colours were slightly washed out in comparison. The DS Lite's backlighting makes the graphics stand out in DS games, though. The colourful Tetris DS, for example, is significantly enhanced by the brightness of the newer system.

We tested the DS Lite's battery against the original DS's. Playing the exact same game (Super Mario 64) at each system's brightest setting and maximum volume, the DS Lite lasted for roughly 5 hours, while the DS conked out after 6 hours, 45 minutes. Recharging the system back to full power took 3 hours. Like the original, the DS Lite goes into sleep mode when the system is closed.

Until the release of the Nintendo Wii, its new console, the company seems intent on focusing its creative juices on the DS rather than the near-dead GameCube. If you still haven't picked a portable gaming system, the DS Lite is definitely worth picking up if you like its growing list of quirky, original titles. If you've already purchased the original, the improvements aren't significant enough to warrant shelling out another £100 unless you're truly put off by the bulkiness of the original. If you're in the market for a portable system with more mature -- albeit less original -- titles and decent media playback capabilities, then the PSP may be worth picking up for £80 more.

Nintendo Game Boy Micro

2008-04-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

Nintendo essentially invented the handheld-gaming market back in 1989 with the original Game Boy, a clunky black-and-white portable that rocketed to success, thanks largely to the availability of the addictive Tetris game. The company continued to refine the portable concept, going colour in 1998, then sizing things down to the more compact Game Boy Advance in 2001. Two years later, the company released the SP model, which, with an improved screen, a smaller size, a clamshell design and rechargeable battery, was hailed as a nearly perfect portable device by many gamers. Now, Nintendo is retooling the Game Boy yet again with the Game Boy Micro.

Design
The £69 Nintendo Game Boy Micro -- or GBM, as it has already been dubbed by the Nintendo faithful -- lives up to its name. It's a minuscule 102mm wide, 51mm tall and 18mm deep -- that's roughly the size of an iPod Mini or a small mobile phone, but bigger all around than Apple's "impossibly small" iPod nano. The horizontal design is a departure from the squarish clamshell of the SP -- in fact, the Micro looks more like a downscaled version of the old Game Boy Advance. To the right of the 51mm (2-inch) screen is a four-way digital control pad, while the two main A and B control buttons are to the left. Two shoulder buttons along the top edge round out the main controls. The Select and Start buttons are below the screen on an angled border.

The Nintendo Game Boy Micro is significantly smaller than the SP, but the slightly wider design makes it more comfortable to use

Game cartridges slide into the bottom side of the Micro. (For the record, the Micro accepts only the recent Game Boy Advance titles, not the larger Game Boy Color or original Game Boy cartridges from decades past.) The slot is flanked on either side by the power switch and -- hallelujah -- a standard 3.5mm headphone minijack. The latter corrects the most glaring flaw of the Game Boy Advance SP, which needed a small dongle to connect standard headphones to its proprietary port. If you don't have headphones, the small speaker on the Micro's front face will suffice. A tiny rocker switch on the right side controls volume. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is found under a screwed-down cover on the rear and can be replaced by the user when it eventually gives up the ghost.

The SP has two small expansion ports on its rear, but the Micro has only one: a new proprietary connector, centred on the top edge between the shoulder buttons. At present, it's limited to providing a connection for the AC power adaptor to recharge the battery, but it will eventually be used to connect to some forthcoming Micro-specific accessories. Nintendo plans two multiplayer link cables (for head-to-head Micro versus Micro and Micro versus SP connectivity) as well as a Micro version of the SP's wireless adaptor. So, while none of the existing SP accessories will work with the Micro, it should eventually have the same multiplayer capabilities as its predecessor, assuming you're comfortable with extraneous link cables and bulky wireless adaptors.

The Nintendo Game Boy Micro ships in four colours: blue, green, pink and silver. But those are just the unit's body colour -- the front is actually a swappable faceplate, like a mobile phone or the Xbox 360. While the Micro loses the clamshell design that provided screen protection for the SP, the faceplates cover the screen, so cosmetic scratches and scrapes are restricted to the surface. Expect to see a variety of 'collectible' faceplate packs from Nintendo and other third-party vendors in the future.

Features
Aside from cosmetic variations, then, are there any significant differences between the Micro and the SP? In a word, no. The Micro is just the SP in a smaller package; it's not intended to deliver anything new in terms of gameplay or features. Even battery life is basically even, about 10 hours between charges. It comes down to which Game Boy delivers a better user experience. And while the answer is more subjective than absolute, we came down on the side of the Micro. Despite its overall smaller size, the Micro is actually 19mm wider than the SP. The broader form factor combined with its lighter weight -- 88g (with cartridge) as opposed to the SP's 150g -- yielded better overall ergonomics. Gaming sessions on the Micro were more comfortable and less fatiguing on the hands and fingers.

The Micro's screen is an inch smaller than the SP's, but much brighter and sharper

Performance
At just 51mm (2 inches), the Micro's small screen appears to be a liability; it's fully 33 per cent smaller than the SP's 3-incher. View both units side by side, however, and your eyes will immediately gravitate to the Micro. The screen is so much brighter that few will miss the larger SP screen. Instead, you'll be wondering how you could've lived with that comparatively dull, washed-out image for so long. On the other hand, fans of text-heavy games -- RPGs, for instance -- may find the Micro's screen is just too small.

More sophisticated gamers may want to splash out the extra £20 to upgrade to the Nintendo DS -- it plays a growing list of popular titles (Nintendogs, Advance Wars Dual Strike, Castlevania), but its beefy size means you won't be slipping it into the pocket of your jeans. By contrast, the Nintendo Game Boy Micro is the perfect go-anywhere gaming machine. It's an easy recommendation for children, for whom it will no doubt provide hours of Pokemon- and Dragon Ball Z-fuelled delight. Adults with a favourite Zelda, Mario or Advance Wars title will find the Micro a worthwhile travel companion as well.

Tapwave Zodiac1

2008-04-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

If you're in the market for a new Palm and you have a bit of gamer in you, Tapwave is hoping you'll consider its Zodiac entertainment console, a groundbreaking PDA that doubles as a portable gaming device. The Tapwave Zodiac1, which has less built-in memory (32MB) than its more expensive twin brother, the 128MB Zodiac2, costs £150. That's a lot of scratch for the Game Boy Advance audience but not an outrageous sum to pay for a Palm featuring an impressively sharp, high-resolution screen with Landscape and Portrait orientation; dual expansion slots; ATI's new handheld graphics accelerator; and a built-in analogue game controller.

However, with any gaming platform, what really counts is the software, and the list of compelling Zodiac-enhanced Palm titles is pretty short. Ideally, that will change with time and eventually give deep-pocketed gamers a reason to make the Zodiac1 their next handheld -- assuming they're not holding out for the release of Sony's PSP.

Design
While slim, the 143 by 79 by 14mm Tapwave Zodiac1 is a bit oversize compared with most Palms. But it's definitely one of the slickest-looking PDAs out there, and it makes Nintendo's Game Boy Advance SP seem like a toy. The slate-grey exterior (coloured slightly lighter than the Zodiac2) and the gaming-oriented buttons will compete for your attention, but the sharp transflective display, which offers a high resolution of 480x320 pixels and 65,536 colours, will catch your eye first.

We didn't have any serious complaints about the device's gaming ergonomics; the analogue joystick, the trigger buttons, and the gaming pad all felt very tactile. Significantly, the Zodiac1 has the ability to view images horizontally or vertically. But at 178g, the Zodiac is heavier than a Game Boy Advance SP, so you'll have to give your hands a break every so often.

The Zodiac ships with an AC adapter, a USB cable, headphones, a wrist strap, and a flip cover.

The dedicated Home button calls up the Zodiac-customised main Palm screen, which lets you easily navigate among the usual Palm organiser features; launch various apps, including multimedia programs for playing games, listening to music, viewing photos and video, and reading e-books; and access other data. The Zodiac may have the best-modified Palm interface we've seen; it's superior to that of Sony's CLIEs. This excellent functionality is especially handy, as there are no standard quick-launch keys for the address book, the calendar, and the to-do list.

We liked having a back-panel clip for the stylus, but it pops out a little too easily, and you'll very likely lose it. We're unconvinced you could make do with just the included detachable flip cover; a £150 device merits a full protective sleeve. Rest assured that Tapwave sells a separate case, along with a wireless keyboard and several other Zodiac accessories. The box also comes with a USB syncing/power cable, earbuds, and a wrist strap. You can add a Wi-Fi card, a plug-in digital camera, or another SDIO peripheral (a number are currently under development) via one of the SD/MMC expansion slots.

The Zodiac1 has a sealed-case design. As always, we would have preferred the ability to replace the rechargeable battery -- just in case. Also, the recessed audio jack may be a tight squeeze for headphones with a wider than average plug.

Features
Running on a zippy 200MHz ARM processor and a modified version of Palm OS 5.2, the Tapwave Zodiac1 ships with a whopping 32MB of onboard memory, 12MB of which are reserved for system use. As you'd expect with a device called an entertainment console, the Zodiac comes loaded with multimedia applications. Along with the classic Address Book, Date Book, and To Do List Palm OS features, you get Graffiti 2.0 for handwriting recognition, Palm Reader for text, and Kinoma Video Player and Producer for video with sound. The Zodiac also accepts most existing Palm programs.

In place of RealOne Mobile Player is Tapwave's own nicely designed MP3 player, and the company created equally pleasing image-viewing applications that take over for Palm Photo. You'll also find the WordSmith Word-document viewer and Inkstorm, a Bluetooth wireless chat/whiteboard program. In addition, Tapwave throws in the Power One graphing calculator and a nifty clock/alarm. The MP3 file of your choice serves as your wake-up call, blaring from the built-in Yamaha stereo speakers.

Gizmondo Europe Gizmondo

2008-04-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

It's difficult to avoid comparisons to the Sony PSP (which might be why Gizmondo Europe was so reluctant to send out review units), so we may as well get it out of the way: the Gizmondo doesn't come close to touching the PSP. It won't even challenge our increasingly neglected Nintendo DS for second place.

In hardware terms, it looks three years too late, sitting next to the Game Boy Advance as something you'd be embarrassed to get out in public. On software terms, it's sorely lacking a 'must-have' title, and the games are highly derivative (although support from EA is imminent). The PSP and DS are offering games that rival the home consoles, whereas Gizmondo currently offers many games that originated on the Internet.

Despite all this, the Gizmondo has a certain homegrown British charm and is one of the few handheld consoles that can lay realistic claim to being portable. It has some promising features that need software support to gain consumer interest, but in the meantime the Gizmondo looks likely to remain a curate's egg for the gadget fan and an urban myth for everyone else.

Design
If the PSP is the iPod of the gaming world and the Nintendo DS the Creative Zen, then the Gizmondo is like something from Oregon Scientific -- interesting features but next to no style.

The two shoulder buttons may protrude like Shrek's ears, but they feel more comfortable than the unresponsive, clicky ones on the PSP. The Gizmondo also feels a lot more durable, with its rubbery black casing absorbing all the shocks of backpack carriage without taking damage. In a nice touch, the whole screen is indented and therefore less prone to scratching.

Most handheld consoles of late have not been very portable, but the Gizmondo slips into your pocket with ease. It also means that the screen is about half the size of the PSP's, and isn't in a widescreen format. The main face buttons are compact enough to be covered completely by your right thumb, which is far more comfortable than the PSP's design. They've clearly been modelled on Sony's classic PlayStation template, but as this is a 'mulitmedia' device, the main action buttons have been replaced with play, stop, rewind and fast-forward labels. It makes no difference in-game, of course, but if you are playing MP3s or movies, it makes it easier to naviagate.

The D-pad is adequate and crucially it favours prolonged use, but the Gizmondo doesn't have an analogue control -- making it the only major handheld console without this form of interface. We also despise the placement and size of the menu buttons -- they're situated along the top so you have to adjust your hands to access them, and even if you manage to overcome this crime against ergonomics, you have to push them hard to register and their shape is unnaturally thin.

On the rear, the VGA camera has been intelligently placed at the top, meaning that you're unlikely to have your finger over it when taking a quick snap. In terms of quality, it's very much like a phone camera (although the better camera phones are now offering 1- or 2-megapixel cameras). There's no button to take you directly to the photography menu quickly, so if you see David Beckham in the street and want to get a quick snapshot, you'll have to ask him to wait around for a minute while you wrestle the console into photography mode.

When you're charging the battery in the off mode, you can't turn the console on. But if you have the console turned on, you can charge up at the same time. If you use the console a lot you'll need to remember not to let the battery wear down completely. Like a mobile phone, though, the battery will vibrate as a feature of certain games, which is a vaguely embarrassing nuisance when you're playing on the bus.

Gizmondo's branding is very strong, with a nicely packaged unit, and when you open the box you find you get a few free downloads from the Web site. The SD format is a logical way of storing games but it also makes them quite fiddly and prone to getting lost. Luckily, each game comes with a Gizmondo-branded storage case for two cards.

GamePark Holdings GP2X

2008-04-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

The handheld games console business is a ruthless one. We've lost count of the number of failed handhelds and only Sony, with its billions, has been able to make a dent in Nintendo's unquestioned dominance. On the surface, the little-known GP2X, complete with its idiosyncratic use of Linux, looks doomed to failure, but can its apparent Achilles heel be its saviour?

Strengths
The GP2X is the spiritual successor to the GP32, also from GamePark Holdings. Aesthetically, it sits somewhere between the Sony PSP and the Sega Game Gear, which obviously isn't a bad thing. It feels great in the hands, although its build quality is obviously not in the same league as its more established rivals.

The unit has four controller buttons on the face, two shoulder triggers and a small thumbstick on the left side. Below this is a volume rocker for adjusting the sound levels of the tinny, front-facing speakers, and in the middle of it all is an ample 89mm (3.5-inch) screen.

There's a sliding power button on the left, which is pretty much impossible to press accidentally, so there's no chance of inadvertantly losing your progress in a game. At the top there's an SD memory card slot plus a 2.5mm headphone jack, and at the right there are DC power and mini-USB ports. At the bottom of the device there's a port labelled EXT, which can be used to connect the GP2X to an external monitor, or to install additional memory.

The GP2X is more than just a handheld games console. From the device's main menu you can play video, listen to music, view photos, and read ebooks. It's compatible with a variety of file formats straight out of the box including DivX/XviD, MP3, OGG, WMA, JPEG and GIF.

Behind the scenes, the GP2X uses a stripped-down version of the Linux operating system, which for the most part is a tremendous strength. This, in effect, makes it a handheld computer on which you can run a wide variety of Linux applications, or even create your own.

More impressively for gamers, the GP2X can run a variety of emulators. It'll let you run games designed for arcade machines, SNES, Game Boy, PlayStation and just about everything else. Unfortunately you'll need to own the original games in order to play them legally, but there are some freeware or 'abandonware' titles you can play without fear of becoming a software pirate.

Weaknesses
For all its potential, the GP2X doesn't have the feel of mainstream product. You simply cannot pick it up and play with the same reckless abandon as a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Actually getting it to do anything requires a fair bit of tinkering, as well as (occasionally) some hair pulling.

We were slightly disappointed at the amount of internal storage on the device. Only 64MB of NAND memory is available, so having an SD memory card is a necessity. We recommend having at least 512MB, but if you intend to use the device as a platform for watching full-length video you'll need at least double that.

The 89mm screen isn't as good as it could be. It isn't as bright as we'd like, some text is illegible, and the display flickers at the faintest sign of a low battery. This in itself can be a common occurrence as the unit only lasts a few minutes on AA alkaline cells. It's almost not worth bothering to slip a couple of Duracells in -- you're better off with rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which will last anywhere up to 6 hours.

The GP2X's speakers are also utterly rubbish. They're nowhere near loud enough, so listening to music in a noisy environment is usually out of the question unless you're prepared to wear headphones.

Conclusion
Ultimately, the GP2X will only appeal to users who are prepared to invest time and effort -- it's simply not a pick-up-and-play platform. Those looking for immediate thrills are better off using the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Having said that, we think users with a geeky side will get plenty of satisfaction from the GP2X. There's a wealth of exciting old-school games available for its various emulators, and the possibilities for creating your own on-the-go applications make it worthy of consideration.

Nintendo Wii

2008-04-03T08:35:00.001-07:00

Product Summary

The good: Revolutionary controller design offers unique motion-sensitive gameplay options; built-in Wi-Fi delivers free online services and gameplay; Virtual Console has major nostalgia appeal; compatible with all GameCube games and controllers; built-in SD slot for storage and photo viewing; includes Wii Sports game; most affordable home game console.

The bad: Controller eats batteries and takes some time to get used to; online gaming and community features hobbled by horrible "friends code" system; nunchuk controller sold separately; lacks the advanced HD graphics and surround sound found on the Xbox 360 and the PS3; requires a wired receiver unit placed near the TV to interface with wireless controllers; can't play CDs or DVDs.

The bottom line: It lacks the graphical prowess and rich media features of the Xbox 360 and the PS3, but the Nintendo Wii's combination of unique motion-sensitive controllers and emphasis on fun gameplay make the ultra-affordable console hard to resist.

Specs: Product Description: Nintendo Wii - Game console; Media Type: Nintendo GAMECUBE disc, Nintendo Wii disc; Processor: IBM PowerPC

Xbox 360 Elite

2008-04-03T02:47:00.000-07:00

Introducing Xbox 360 Elite

Microsoft Unveils Xbox 360 Elite
Xbox 360™ Elite is the newest addition to the Xbox family that includes a huge 120GB hard drive (the largest available for any gaming console), a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable, and a premium black finish. The Xbox 360 Elite also includes a black wireless controller and black Xbox LIVE® headset.
Xbox 360 Elite

Components and Features
Elite Console
Xbox 360 Elite is equipped with a premium black finish and HDMI cable, and like all Xbox 360 systems, comes with three powerful core processors, full surround sound, and DVD playback with upscaling capabilities right out of the box.

120 Gigabyte Hard Drive
The huge 120GB detachable hard drive is the largest available on any console. It lets you save your games and store television shows, movies, music, pictures, trailers, extra game levels, demos, and other content available from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Also sold separately in gray.

Black Wireless Controller
The sleek black finish of this high-performance wireless controller matches the style of the Elite Console. It has a range of up to 30 feet and a battery life of 30 hours on two AA batteries. Also sold separately.
Xbox 360 Elite

Other Components Sold Separately
Black Rechargable Battery Pack Black Rechargable Battery Pack
Now available in black, Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Packs let you juice up additional wireless controllers with the Play and Charge Kit you already own. Match the style of Xbox 360 Elite with the black Rechargeable Battery Pack. (Sold Separately)
Black Play & Charge Kit Black Play & Charge Kit
Now available in black, the Xbox 360 Play & Charge Kit comes complete with a charging cable and rechargeable battery pack. It’s all you need to juice up your Xbox 360 Wireless Controller. (Sold Separately)
Xbox 360 Elite

Xbox 360(20 GB)

2008-04-03T02:40:00.000-07:00

Product Summary

The good: Superior selection of games, including several console-exclusive titles; all games in high-definition; easy-to-use Dashboard interface; excellent online gaming and communications via Xbox Live; plays hundreds of (but not all) original Xbox titles; doubles as a superior digital media hub and Windows Media Center extender; online Marketplace allows for easy purchases of downloadable full-scale games, mini-games, movies, and TV shows; latest version offers HDMI output with 1080p support.

The bad: Early versions of the console prone to "red ring of death" system crash; noisy exhaust fan and DVD drive; gigantic oversize power supply; no built-in wireless networking or flash media reader; DVD playback has substandard video quality; support for next-gen HD DVD movies requires a bulky external accessory; 20GB hard drive fills up very quickly; online gaming requires a paid subscription to Xbox Live.

The bottom line: With its extensive digital media features, a superior online service, and an excellent game library, the Xbox 360 remains the game console to beat.

Specs: Product Description: Xbox 360 - Game console; Media Type: DVD-ROM; Processor: 1 x IBM PowerPC 3 cores 3.2 GHz See full specs >>

Price range: $244.95 - $399.99

X-Box 360 Portable,PSP3,PSP2

2008-04-03T02:35:00.000-07:00

Here is this system that I found X-Box 360 Portable

Here Is A PSP3 and it will never exist!!!!

And here is something else PSP2

Sony's Mylo

2008-04-03T02:25:00.000-07:00

Sony is at it again. After failing for years to come up with anything resembling a successful digital Walkman to capture a nice chunk of either the MP3 or the nascent digital video markets, the company recently announced the Mylo, a new "portable broadband device" targeted at college students.

On the surface, the Mylo--which stands for my life online--is a pretty cool little gadget. It's got a sharp, colorful 2.4-inch screen for viewing MPEG-4 videos and JPEG images, built-in Wi-Fi, instant messaging, Web browsing, e-mail access, and Internet phone calling via Skype. The only problem is that Sony is initially setting the Mylo's price at $350--pretty ridiculous, considering you can get a smart phone right now that does everything the Mylo does--albeit without the Mylo's 1GB of built-in memory--for the same dough or less (with a new service plan). And while college campuses are currently among the few places that have fairly ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage, out in the real world, where Wi-Fi availability is still spotty at best, the Mylo loses a lot of its value.

The $350 Sony Mylo: DOA?

I don't mind that Sony is out there creating sexy-looking new gizmos. That's what it does, and it gives me something to write about. I just wish the company would have more discipline in creating gizmos that are priced right. Or smarter yet, build upon successful and relatively fast-growing platforms such as the PSP's, which is capable of doing exactly what the Mylo does--and maybe doing it even better--for less money.

The Sony PSP costs $199. It's not perfect, but all things considered, it's one of Sony's finest efforts in recent years--and it's supported by a business model that makes sense: affordable hardware subsidized by game sales. Built-in Wi-Fi? Check. Web browser? Check. Plays MPEG-4 videos and JPEG images? Check and check. Built-in keyboard? Ah, there's the rub. A virtual one, yes; mini QWERTY, no. And the PSP isn't exactly pocket friendly either, though it is compact and does have a bigger, wider screen that's more conducive to video watching and Web browsing than the Mylo's.

To be fair, Sony is gradually beginning to exploit the true potential of the PSP as both an entertainment and a communications device. Gradual has several connotations, however, and Sony's flavor tends to lean toward the slow variety, rather than the steady. The first few PSP system upgrades arrived weeks apart; now they come month to month and seem to be relatively minor tweaks. Let's pick up the pace, boys. How 'bout a little Skype for the PSP? I mean, if they can do it for the Mylo, why not for the PSP? Oh, that's right: the PSP already has VoIP functionality built into a game called SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo; there's even a decent headset that you can pick up for less than $20. So all Sony needs to do is write a little software app and let the college kids jabber away.
The missing keyboard is a harder fix. The Logic 3 keyboard was cancelled before entering production, but it was supposed to snap on the PSP's bottom and snake a cable around the back to its sole USB port. Of course, it would've helped if Sony had put that USB jack on the bottom of the device instead of on the top, but I'd be game for a semikludge solution in the interim, before we see a PSP2. I like the idea of one of those almost-full-size, fold-up keyboards that were once a popular accessory for Palm handhelds. Like the Palm version, the keyboard would have a built-in stand for the PSP, so you could prop it up at just the right angle for glare-free viewing.

I have a few other suggestions, but rather than drone on, I'll keep it brief, and summarize.

Sony PlayStation 3 (80GB)

2008-04-03T02:13:00.000-07:00

Product Summary

The good: Swanky design with quiet operation; all games in high-definition; PSP-like easy-to-use interface; plays high-def Blu-ray movies in addition to upscaling standard DVDs; built-in Wi-Fi and flash media reader; 80GB hard drive; online play is free; HDMI output with 1080p support; no external power supply; free online gaming service; plays most PS2 and PS1 games.

The bad: Compelling exclusive games are still few and far between; backwards compatibility is software-based; PlayStation Home and rumble controller not available until 2008; a USB port on the back would've been nice; no infrared port means non-Bluetooth universal remotes aren't compatible; glossy black finish is a fingerprint magnet; online gaming, media, and commerce options not nearly as developed as Xbox Live.

The bottom line: The high-end Sony PlayStation 3's larger hard drive and ability to play older PS2 games makes it a worthwhile alternative to the cheaper model--so long as you're willing to wait several months for the more promising exclusive titles to hit store shelves.

Specs: Product Description: Sony PlayStation 3 - Game console; Media Type: BD-ROM, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM; Processor: Cell Broadband Engine See full specs >>

Price range: $499.99 - $695.00

High Tech Gaming

XFX GeForce 8800 GT Video Card

Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System PZ44

Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals

Razer Destructor Precision Gaming Surface

Xi Mtower IGE-STACKER

This overclocked dual-core desktop outgunned pricier, quad-core systems.

CyberPower Gamer Infinity Ultimate

This overclocked system is blisteringly fast and comes with the works, justifying its high price.

Xi Mtower IGE-SLI

This fast, water-cooled, dual-core PC generated high video frame rates with just one graphics card.

Polywell Poly P3503

This overclocked water-cooled desktop is reasonably fast and nicely loaded.

Razer's Gaming Keyboard and Mouse

ASUS N10

XDR2 DRAM

NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Motherboards

ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

Nvidia GeForce GTX 280

Hardware Support

GIGABYTE gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 S775

Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard and X5 Mouse Introduced for Gamers

BTC 9051H Cheetah Professional Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Kit unveiled

Logitech G9 Laser Mouse and Upgraded G15 Gaming Keyboard unveiled

Everglide DKTBoard Gaming Keyboard Powered by Razer

Allienware: Area-51 ALX CFX(Gaming PC)

45 Nanometers of Quad-Core Glory

Let Alienware Push Your System to the Limit

Get Caught in the CrossFireX

More than ever before

DDR3 Memory is Here

Blu-ray Disc Technology

NVIDIA Quadro® FX 5600

ATI Radeon™ X800(Graphic Card)

Tapwave Zodiac 2 - Gaming PDA

Playstation 2 Slim

Sony PSP Slim

Nintendo DS Lite

Nintendo Game Boy Micro

Tapwave Zodiac1

Gizmondo Europe Gizmondo

GamePark Holdings GP2X

Nintendo Wii

Xbox 360 Elite

Xbox 360(20 GB)

X-Box 360 Portable,PSP3,PSP2

Sony's Mylo

Sony PlayStation 3 (80GB)