Dalo Harkin

Sorry I didnt read it fully - I will post later on for you.

AMD's first DDR3-supporting Denebs are on the schedule and due for release within the next couple of months. While they have a quad-core Deneb prepped for released at the beginning of next year, the AM3 boards with DDR3 memory support are not due until sometime in February. Despite the short delay for a DDR3 platform, AMD is throwing a bone to anyone who wants to pick up a Deneb CPU – Denebs will be compatible with both AM2+ and AM3 motherboards, with the CPU itself having a memory controller capable of dealing with both DDR2 and DDR3. That might make a nice upgrade path for people who have pricey boards or RAM right now and don't want to ditch it for the sake of a CPU. AMD's launch of Deneb marks the end of a long downward spiral which Intel has taken great advantage of. Is it too late for AMD to pull itself out of the slump? Definitely not. They started out as an underdog manufacturer, and they certainly have a chance with Deneb to impress the public once again. Sourced from AMD DDR3 boards coming in February - TechSpot News

The ubiquitous USB interface was officially updated to version 3.0, with developers delivering the final “SuperSpeed” USB specification and a comprehensive review of the technology at a conference today. The new standard will provide a maximum bandwidth of 5.0 Gbps, which is more than ten times what is offered by USB 2.0, while also being more power-efficient than its predecessor. To put things into perspective, developers said the new spec can handle 25GB transfers in a mere 70 seconds, whereas the same transfer would take 13.9 minutes with the current USB 2.0 protocol and 9.3 hours on USB 1.0. USB 3.0 is backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 hardware but won't work with USB 1.0 devices due to significant changes between the original format and its third generation. The first USB 3.0 standalone controllers are expected to hit the market in the second half of 2009, according to the announcement, with consumer products arriving in 2010. Additional information on the new spec can be found here. Sourced from USB 3.0 spec released today, promises 10X speed boost - TechSpot News

As promised back in May, Samsung has begun mass production of its 256GB solid-state drives for notebook and desktop PCs, complementing their lineup which ranges from 8, 16 and 32GB for low-density designs and 64, 128 and now 256GB alternatives for the higher densities. The new drive is not just bigger, but also much faster. More specifically, its sequential read speed is slightly lower than that of its Intel rival at 220MB per second but is faster for sequential writes, recording data at a whopping 200MB per second. To put things into perspective, Samsung says the new drive quick enough to store 25 HD movies in 21 minutes and open basic applications 10 times faster than the quickest 7,200RPM notebook drive. Other specs include a rated power consumption of 1.1W under load and an optional encryption feature for corporate users. Unfortunately, the price for this new 256GB SSD hasn't been announced yet. Sourced from Samsung launches 256GB solid-state drive - TechSpot News

VIA is extending their hand to the open source community, with a recent announcement that the company will be assisting in the development of an open source driver for their Chrome hardware. The Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits will be working with the OpenChrome development team, creating drivers for the Chrome hardware found on various VIA platforms. In particular, VIA is mentioning current development involving support for multiple monitors and screen resolution changes. The advantages of this cooperation are numerous, including having a single code base being developed by both the OSS community and VIA. Hardware acceleration for VIA GPUs would be a very welcome addition to their other hardware support. VIA has also released programming manuals for the hardware. For those of us who use boards with UniChrome, it would be great to get a fully functional hardware accelerated driver. Sourced from VIA working on open source UniChrome driver - TechSpot News

After helping saturate the market with its Wind netbook, MSI is now setting its sights on the all-in-one nettop market and has announced the forthcoming launch of three competitively-priced products. Dubbed Wind Netons, the new offerings will range in price between $399 and $799, and feature a simplistic design that is somewhat reminiscent of the Apple iMac. http://www.techspot.com/fileshost/newspics2/2008/msi-neton.jpg Two Wind Neton models – the $399 M16 with a 15.6” panel and $499 M19 with an 18.5” panel – will adopt the Intel Atom 270 processor and 945GSE chipset, with 1GB of DDR2 memory, 160GB hard drive, a slim-type optical drive and either Windows XP or Linux. The $799 Neton M22 bumps up performance with either an Intel dual-core or quad-core mobile CPU and GS45 chipset to support H.264 and VC1 hardware decoding. It will also boast a touch sensitive screen and optional Blu-ray drive. The new MSI Neton PCs will start shipping in January and should directly compete with the recently announced Eee Top all-in-one nettops from Asus. Sourced from MSI unveils three all-in-one PCs - TechSpot News

After initial disappointment with the original Phenom processors, AMD showed off its upcoming 45nm ‘Deneb’ desktop chip – now confirmed as Phenom II – for reviewers at an event in Texas this week, and overclocked the second-generation quad-core part to what some observers said was 6.3GHz. The company reached such clock speeds by using liquid nitrogen at an amazing -196C to cool the processor – apparently the new AMD design works flawlessly from -200C to +100C. Of course not many people have access to such extreme cooling methods but the demo should at least show that the new Phenom II processors are scalable when it comes to clock speeds and quite stable at high frequencies. The Phenom II parts were also able to hit 4GHz with air cooling and 5GHz with dry ice cooling. By comparison, Intel's top Core i7 processor listed as a 3.2 GHz part has been overclocked to 4.5 GHz on air cooling alone and some claim to have taken it to 5.7GHz using liquid nitrogen. The top Phenom II chip, due out sometime in the first quarter of 2009, will reportedly list as 3.0 GHz off the shelf. Sourced from AMD shows off Phenom II overclocked to 6.3GHz - TechSpot News

VIA Technologies subsidiary S3 Graphics, best known for its integrated graphic cores in recent years, has just introduced its next-generation of Chrome 500 graphics processors. The new series of discrete graphics solutions is built to challenge the Radeon HD 4350 and other budget cards with a feature set that includes Blu-ray playback support, DirectX 10.1, and OpenGL 3.0. http://www.techspot.com/fileshost/newspics2/2008/s3-chrome-500.jpg Pictured above is the S3 Chrome 530GT, the first card in the series, which has a GPU clocked at 625MHz and 512MB of DDR2 memory at 500MHz. It also features both HDMI and dual-link DVI outputs and Via’s PowerWise Technology to deliver balance between performance and power. While the card itself is nothing spectacular, its solid video processing features paired with a price tag of just $45 could certainly appeal to those building an HTPC. Sourced from S3 launches Chrome 500 graphics line - TechSpot News

When purchasing a game, how often do reviews and scores given by specialized websites factor into it? Eidos believes people put a lot of weight into that, so much that they are seeking to bar negative reviews appearing for their games before release with the purpose of achieving a higher score on Metacritic. What started out as a Twitter update, with a journalist claiming that Eidos asked him to withhold his review if it was negative, has turned into Eidos outright confirming that they don't want negative reviews coming out. This certainly isn't the first time Eidos has been seen doing this. Earlier this year, the company was assumed to have pressured GameSpot into firing one of their executive editors by threatening to pull ad deals. This was in response to a negative review that GameSpot posted, which was retroactively edited afterward. Both companies denied the two events being related, however. In this instance, a PR company for Eidos has outright admitted that they are trying to coerce sites into not posting negative reviews, at least not until after the game is actually released. They do not state that they would prevent reviewers from getting advance copies of the game, nor that they would be under obligation to pull a review if it was negative. Still, the implication here is pretty severe. Should a game developer or publisher even be involved in the review process at all? Sourced from Eidos pressuring reviewers to delay negative reviews? - TechSpot News

Those who have been around long enough will probably remember a time when Netscape dominated the browser market in terms of usage, only to lose most of that share to Internet Explorer during the browser war in the late 1990s. But how did Microsoft pulled it off? Simple, by pre-installing its software and having it ready to go with every copy of Windows sold. Now it seems Google is mulling a similar scheme with their browser, Google Chrome, in a move that could significantly boost their presence in search and also put some of their web based apps in front of new users. According to Google VP of Product Management, Sundar Pichai, the browser's beta period will end in January after which the company “will probably do distribution deals” with OEMs. With Microsoft not expected to release IE8 until sometime in the first quarter of 2009 and its browser share slipping lately, now might be just the right time for Chrome to strike – and securing pre-installation deals could be the way to go. Of course, Google must also go against Mozilla and Apple who have been steadily growing a strong presence in the market. Sourced from Google to pre-install Chrome on new PCs? - TechSpot News

Glad its all sorted :)

I recommended O&O to Mara when she had an earlier issue with another 3rd party defrag - I use O&O defrag as I said to Mara - but the average user sees no benefit from anything other than the windows inbuilt version.

To be honest Matt if the drive is an older one its not as good as a SATA and you may be better asking SANTA for one - Set the First device to HDD and disable the others. You will be impressed with the OC - run a benchmark before and after thats where you notice the difference, You are gaining Nearly 4Ghz over the 4 cores - Most people dont have one chip that runs at that speed - :D

At the bottom of page 15 is for the Audio -

Yes - Its dead im afraid - dependant on how much the monitor was and the size of it - some are massive and they are better being repaired than they are buying a new one.

Hi, Welcome to FPCH :)

Dont worry about the count thing mine does it too - I have put the instruction for OC'ing it in the post above yours :) Thats weird with the lapses - have you set the HDD to the top of the BOOT list in the BIOS and I dont mean the HDD as first boot device - do you just have the one drive?

Right Matt - THIS IS TAKEN AT YOUR OWN RISK OVERCLOCKING CAN REDUCE THE LIFE OF YOUR COMPONENTS, AND VOIDS MOST WARRANTIES. This was the SAFEST and best solution when I ran on air 3.3GHz per core! Go into the BIOS and click:- ADVANCED JUMPERFREE CONFIGURATION AI OVERCLOCK TUNER - set this to MANUAL SET THE FSB FREQUENCY to 367 You then need to set the timings for your RAM - if you chose the OCZ REAPER 1066 it will be 5-5-5-15 and then save and exit. PLEASE KEEP AN EYE on your temps as I am not sure if the case that you bought is up to the job - An Antec on the other hand :rolleyes:

Sorry Matt, I have been away a few days - it is very easy to do its just 2 settings in the BIOS - you did get some 1066 RAM didnt you?

Hi, If you open a web page - it doent matter if its connected or not type 192.168.1.1 and you will get a password box log in for your router - can you please check and see if any of the settings seem wrong, if you are unsure what you are looking at - on the right hand side there is an explanation of each setting

Hi, Welcome to FPCH :)

Hi, Welcome to FPCH :)

This was changed not long ago, 2 cards same model are fine any manufacturer

3.3 is a good gain and stable - if the case can take the heat

Is the board not controlling any of the 4 - I though 3 were ok and one was not - use the one in the link for the front fan As for the OC tools - I can tell you how to get 3.3 on air - at your own risk of course :D