ECS A790GXM-AD3 Motherboard

The Black Series represents ECS’ high-end boards and the A790GXM-AD3 is one of the latest and is powered by AMD’s 790GX Northbridge. Is it any good? Lets find out…

Specifications:

The A790GXM-AD3 is an AM3 Socket motherboard from ECS for AMD Phenom II processors supporting Dual Channel DDR3 1333 memory architecture. The integrated graphics platform is designed from the AMD 790GX chipset, powered by the ATI Radeon HD 3300 DirectX 10 based graphics core. The ATI Hybrid Graphics capability gives full ATI CrossFireX. The A790GXM-AD3 delivers advanced features such as HyperTransport 3.0 Technology, PCI Express® Generation 2.0, ATI PowerPlay, AMD Cool’n'Quiet 2.0 and Low Power Design bring the Green power effect into play.

Packaging

The ECS’ box art is quite striking; it features a red dragon on a black background.

Inside the box we found 4x SATA cables, an IDE cable, a user manual, driver CD and an I/O back panel shield.

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Zotac GTX275 AMP!

HP HDX 16 Notebook

The HP HDX 16 that we’re looking at today is a not exactly something standard. Unlike most notebooks that offer either 15.x or 17.x inch screens, the HDX 16, as the name suggests, offers a 16″ screen. Obviously that makes it a bit bigger than your 15.x” notebook to carry around and a bit smaller than your 17.x” notebook used as a desktop replacement. Where does this leave the HDX 16? Lets find out.

The packaging on the HDX 16 is pretty much ordinary- a black colored box that houses the notebook and all the extras that come with it such as the charger and the quick-start guides. No CD/DVDs were included in our package because recovery of your notebook can be done through a separate partition of about 12GB on your hard drive. You can easily create recovery CD/DVDs through an application already installed on the notebook which is something I suggest you do right away because I’ve seen hard drives failing out of the blue- not in HP notebooks though ;)

AMD happy on EU finding Intel Guilty

The European Commission today found Intel guilty of abusing its dominant position in the global x86 microprocessor market, saying that “Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years. Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU’s antitrust rules cannot be tolerated.”  The Commission also stated that “there is evidence that Intel had sought to conceal the conditions associated with its payments.” The EC decision requires Intel to change its business practices immediately and fines Intel a record EUR 1.06 billion (US $1.45 billion).

“Today’s ruling is an important step toward establishing a truly competitive market,” said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and CEO.  “AMD has consistently been a technology innovation leader and we are looking forward to the move from a world in which Intel ruled, to one which is ruled by customers.”  

“After an exhaustive investigation, the EU came to one conclusion – Intel broke the law and consumers were hurt,” said Tom McCoy, AMD executive vice president for legal affairs.  “With this ruling, the industry will benefit from an end to Intel’s monopoly-inflated pricing and European consumers will enjoy greater choice, value and innovation.”

The EC decision stated specifically that:
•    “Intel gave wholly or partially hidden rebates to computer manufacturers on condition that they bought all, or almost all, their x86 CPUs from Intel”.
•    “Intel made payments to major retailer Media Saturn Holding from October 2002 to December 2007 on condition that it exclusively sold Intel-based PCs in all countries in which Media Saturn Holding is active.“
•    Intel “interfered directly in the relations between computer manufacturers and AMD. Intel awarded computer manufacturers payments – unrelated to any particular purchases from Intel – on condition that these computer manufacturers postponed or cancelled the launch of specific AMD-based products.”

Intel has so far failed to convince any antitrust enforcement agency that its business practices are lawful and pro-consumer.  

In 2008, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) issued a 26 billion won fine (approximately $25.4 million USD) saying that Intel’s abuse of its dominant position included coercing and paying customers millions of dollars on the condition that they use only Intel chips, delay launches of AMD products, and/or not develop any new products with AMD chips.   The KFTC also found that, “South Korean consumers had to buy PCs at higher prices as domestic PC makers were forced to buy Intel’s pricier CPU.”  In addition to a fine, the KFTC ordered Intel to stop the practice of offering payments to PC makers conditioned upon them not doing business with AMD.  Intel is in the process of appealing the ruling.  

In 2005, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) ruled that Intel had violated the country’s anti-monopoly laws by illegally forcing full or partial exclusivity with five Japanese PC makers.  Intel did not appeal the ruling.

In the United States, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and New York Attorney General’s office are investigating Intel for abuse of its monopoly position.  In 2005, AMD filed private litigation in the US District Court of Delaware, which is scheduled for trial in spring 2010.

Zotac releases ION based solutions

ZOTAC International, an award-winning manufacturer of graphics cards and motherboards, today unleashes its first premium power-efficient all-in-one platform – the ZOTAC ION. The ZOTAC ION™ delivers a premium computing experience in a miniature mini-ITX form-factor.

Powered by a brand new NVIDIA ION™ graphics processor, the ZOTAC ION™ is ready to take on DirectX 10, OpenGL 2.1, NVIDIA CUDA™ and PhysX™ games and applications with its 16 blazing-fast stream processors. The ION graphics processor also delivers a premium Windows experience in Windows Vista and the highly anticipated Windows 7.

An integrated Intel Atom™ processor provides ample performance for daily productivity, email and web browsing tasks. Single and dual-core Atom™ processors power the ZOTAC ION™. A single-core Atom™ N230 processor delivers plenty of power for daily computing uses while an optional dual-core Atom™ N330 processor is available for those demanding more power.

“Achieving greater power efficiency while maintaining competitive performance was previously a hard feat to achieve. With the new ZOTAC ION™ platforms, we’re able to deliver competitive performance with unmatched power efficiency,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International.

NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD technology enables high-definition video playback on the ZOTAC ION™ platforms. With PureVideo HD technology, the ZOTAC ION™ is able to playback vivid 1080p high-definition movies smoothly and enhance standard-definition contents to near-high-definition levels.

A native HDMI output enables easy connectivity to the latest high-resolution monitors or high-definition television sets. The native HDMI output also supports high-resolution and true-fidelity 7.1-channel audio output when connected to supported hardware, enabling superior audio fidelity from movies with high-resolution Dolby Digital True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio audio technology. HDCP compliance secures the HDMI connection for playback of protected video content. DVI and VGA outputs are also available for multiple display connectivity.

“Home theater PCs are becoming popular around the globe. Our new ZOTAC ION™ is an instant solution for users seeking to build a HD video capable HTPC. Since the CPU and GPU are integrated on the board, we’re also able design a fan-less cooler for the motherboard for silent operation” Mr. Berger added.

Integrated 802.11n wireless networking on Atom N330 equipped ZOTAC ION™ motherboards allow blazing-fast network connectivity at speeds up to 144 Mbps for high-speed wireless file transfers and high-definition video streaming. The Atom™ N330 equipped ZOTAC ION™ motherboard also features an onboard DC/DC power supply that delivers greater power efficiency than standard AC/DC power supplies.

“The onboard DC/DC power supply removes the need for a large internal power supply that is typically noisy and occupies a lot of space. With the onboard DC/DC power supply, the dual-core ZOTAC ION™ motherboard can fit into slimmer and more stylish mini-ITX chassis’ with ease,” Mr. Berger said.

ZOTAC stands by the quality of the ZOTAC ION™ motherboards and backs it with an extended warranty. With the ZOTAC extended warranty, the ZOTAC ION is guaranteed to be trouble-free throughout its lifetime.

General details
•    New ZOTAC ION platforms
•    Superior power efficiency
•    10x faster graphics and video transcoding
•    Full 1080p HD video playback
•    Windows Vista Premium capable and Windows 7 ready
•    NVIDIA ION mGPU
•    16 stream processors
•    Integrated Intel Atom N230 (single-core) or Atom N330 (dual-core) processors
•    533 MHz front-side bus
•    HDMI (w/7.1-channel true-fidelity audio), DVI and VGA outputs
•    HDCP compliant
•    2 DDR2 DIMM slots
•    DDR2-667/800 compatible
•    Up to 4GB of DDR2 memory
•    Integrated DC-DC power supply (optional)
•    Included 19V AC/DC power brick (optional)
•    Integrated 802.11n WiFi (optional)
•    Mini PCI Express slot (optional)
•    Microsoft DirectX 10 and OpenGL 2.1 compatible
•    NVIDIA CUDA™ and PhysX™ ready
•    NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD technology
•    ZOTAC Extended Warranty (visit www.zotac.com for details)

ASUS EAH4890

Samsung Launches Lap Fit Monitor Series

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in monitors, launched today its Lap Fit monitor series for laptop computers. The 18.5-inch LD190G and 22-inch LD220 LCD screens create a new market for monitors and are specialised designed for an environment where laptop users utilise dual monitors.

“Demand for laptop computers has substantially increased and, according to IDC, in 2009 the global laptop computer market will overtake the desktop computer market for the first time,” said Madhav Narayan, Head of IT Division at Samsung Gulf Electronics. “However, most laptop computer screens are 15 inches or less. Samsung has introduced this new Lapfit series of monitors in consideration of greater customer needs for a second laptop computer monitor.”

“The LD190G and LD220 are products based on a new concept that focuses on usability and connectivity to a laptop computer. We will continue to launch distinctive products to offer new values to users and ultimately set new trends in the industry,” added Narayan.

New Monitor Category for Consumers on the Move
A laptop computer user who uses a general monitor as a second monitor will experience substantial visual inconveniences resulting from the difference in the height of the general monitor and the laptop computer with the introduction of Samsung’s Lapfit series monitors.

By attaching the stand, which is usually placed on the bottom of conventional displays, to the back of the display, the Lapfit series allows you to maintain a similar height to a laptop computer. This maximises user convenience by removing any visual inconveniences experienced by the user when viewing the screens or shifting the work window. The angle of the stand can be adjusted, allowing the user to tilt the LCD monitor to the same angle (10-30 degrees) as the laptop computer screen.

The monitor can be easily connected to a laptop computer via USB cable.

In addition, a user can use the ‘Magic Bright’ function to adjust the brightness of the monitor to be similar to that of the laptop computer screen. The wide screen 16:9 LCD display with a high resolution of 1360Ⅹ768 ensures that the user enjoys optimised visual effects for entertainment purposes, such as for movies, television dramas and games. 

The Lapfit series includes the Samsung LD220 which is a 22-inch LCD monitor and the 18.5-inch LD190G LCD monitor. The LD220 monitor also includes Samsung’s UbiSync technology that allows up to six monitors to be connected to a PC via USB cable, without a graphics card or complex software installations. This allows more portability for those looking for a larger, richer screen for visual effects on the go.

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AMD Phenom II X4-810/MSI 790GX-G65

Today we take a look at two products in one- the new AMD Phenom 810 CPU which introduces AMD to the world of DDR3 and the MSI 790GX-G65 mothebroard, upon which we’ve tested this CPU. The Phenom II X4 8xx series reduces the L3 cache on the Phenom II platform from 6MB to 4MB which will result in a bit of a performance loss, but on the brighter side, it also reduces the TDP from 125W to 95W.

The Phenom II X4 810 that we have with us today is a Quad Core 2.6GHz CPU with dedicated L1 and L2 cahces of 4 x 128KB and 4 x 512KB for each core along with a shared L3 cache of 4MB. Using HyperTransport 3.0 that provides  21GB/s memory bandwidth for DDR3, you get 37GB/s of processor-to-system bandwidth. It requires an AM3 socket and DDR3 banks which the MSI motherboard happily provides.

Lets take a look at the MSI board features next. Full specs on MSI’s website.

-APS is Active Phase Switching is complete function to Control Power Demand with Switching Dynamically, it’s for CPU, Memory and Chipset PWM.
-Real Time FSB tuning- FSB value change in the BIOS instant!
• Unlimited Turning Segments
• Easy Use – Just Rotate the knob!!!
• Turn OC Beginner to OC Expert!!
• Save your time of trying
• Achieve OC goal in short time
• Faster and Flexible and instant
• If BIOS crash, it still can boot from USB Drive
• Update BIOS from USB Drive by M-Flash Fucntion
• Longer lifespan than electrolytic capacitors
• Endurable to operation under higher frequency & temperature
• Avoid exploding capacitors to cause mainboards failure
• A choke is an inductor responsible for storing power and regulates the current.
• All shielded choke could reduce core power loss, lower EMI interference.
• Store energy longer at higher frequency, achieving higher efficiency.
• Help end-users upgrade CPU FSB directly
• Buy an essential CPU but want to reach higher performance
• Skip the complicated BIOS OC setting and enjoy the higher level CPU performance
• equipped additional 1Gbit (128MB) DDR3 1333MHz IGP memory to accelerate onboard VGA 3D performance up to 15%.
• Independent IGP memory can reduce the consumption of system memory.
• Easy connect to front panel & chassis cable
• 2x USB, IEEE 1394, front panel (JFP1/2)& audio(JAUD1) M-connector in the package
• Easy to tell the definition of each pin
• Functions designed with button to be easy use.
• Help power-users tweaking process in-chasis enviornment
• Onboard SATA ports are stacked on the mainboard to avoid mechanical issue with giant graphic cards like 8800 Ultra.

Packaging

This is the first board we’ve received from MSI with their new logo and it can be seen on the 790GX-G65 box which comes in Orange / white theme- a big departure from their grey/dark or green boxes.

Package includes some manuals, drivers CD/DVD, 4x SATA cables, IDE cable, 1x 4-PIN HDD to SATA converter, Crossfire bridge, MSI M-Connecter and I/O back panel shield.

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