MSI launches overclockable notebook
MSI has launched a new overclockable notebook today, the Turbobook GX600 Extreme Edition. It has MSI's Turbo Drive Engine Technology that with a simple press of a button when the notebook is attached to a wall socket and the CPU and system bus will be overclocked by up to 20%. MSI also claims that it takes a mere 40 seconds to boot up the GX600 when in Turbo mode. The GX600 is based on the Intel PM965 chipset and will be offered with a range of Core 2 Duo processor options.
The graphics chipset comes from Nvidia and is an 8600M GT with 512MB of graphics memory. The system will also have 2GB of RAM, although this can be expanded to 4GB. A wide range of hard drives will be offered from 80 to 250GB. The optical drive will either be a Super Multi DVD or an HD DVD drive. Sadly the 15.4-inch display is limited to 1,280x800 resolution which feels a little bit too low on a powerful notebook like this.
Continue reading: MSI launches overclockable notebook (full post)
CoolIT Liquid Cools HD 2900 XT
CoolIT Systems have entered the market with a bang, producing the first reference series liquid cooling solution which is capable of keeping HD 2900 XTs in CrossFire configuration mighty cool (providing for very nice overclocks).
The system itself is a rather clever factory sealed maintainence free single slot design.
Continue reading: CoolIT Liquid Cools HD 2900 XT (full post)
-100 degrees Celsius at Computex Taipei 2007
As we prepare and setup our booth at Computex Taipei 2007, we were joined by our friend Coolaler who did some initial LN2 overclocking at our booth in Hall 1. Using a GIGABYTE P35 DDR-3 board and Intel Core 2 Duo 6850 processor, we managed an initial OC of 5.4GHz (600 x 9) at around -125c. Keep in mind, thi was done in a less than ideal environment - there is no air con on at the moment and we expect things to only get better throughout the week.
This resulted in a high detail 3DMark01 run of around 85,000 with stock clocked HD 2900 XT in Crossfire mode, which ranks us about 4th for world records, even at this early time. Tomorrow and throughout the week we will tweak the system (no OC to VGA or RAM so far) and try and break some records as we push things further. We are rock stable at 600MHz FSB, so after some tender love and care, we should be able to crank out around 5.6GHz.
Continue reading: -100 degrees Celsius at Computex Taipei 2007 (full post)
TweakTown takes on Computex Taipei 2007 with huge media presence
TweakTown takes on Computex Taipei 2007 with huge media presence
TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Friday June 1st 2007 - TweakTown, one of the worlds's most respected and trusted online computer publications in Asia and the world is set to make a big splash at Computex Taipei 2007. TweakTown will host a one of a kind media party on Monday evening attended by top media and manufacturers. The party will be assisted by a demonstration machine running DDR-3 memory at over 2000MHz on an Intel P35 motherboard. Cool new hardware and software will be given away to members of the press as they celebrate the beginning, of what many say, is the most important computer trade show in the world.
TweakTown will rock the socks off Hall 1 as it showcases a highly overclocked liquid nitrogen system featuring Intel Core 2 QX6850 quad-core processor, Intel P35 DDR-3 based GIGABYTE GA-P35T-DQ6 motherboard, Corsair DDR-3 1333MHz DHX memory and GIGABYTE Radeon HD 2900 XT in Crossfire. OCZ power the show with their ProXStream 1000-watt power supply. The booth will be joined by famous guest Taiwanese overclocker Coolaler who will take things to the absolute limit, live at the show, for all to see. World record holders might want to hold onto their hats, as we attempt to break records!
Continue reading: TweakTown takes on Computex Taipei 2007 with huge media presence (full post)
Consumer Alert - QuickTime plays havoc with RAID in Vista!
I thought I was just unlucky the first time but when something happens two times in the exact same fashion, you just got to check into it a little more.
System is Vista Ultimate 32-bit with RAID 10 on Intel ICH8R chipset. A couple of weeks ago I tried running a .mov file using Apple QuickTime software (latest version) and that is when things started to go downhill. The file seemed very slow to load and eventually QuickTime crashed after a lot of persuasion. Once QuickTime was closed, I was notified of a RAID error through the Intel Matrix Storage Console but the same thing will happen if you reboot during the lockup as well.
Thinking the worst, I promptly went about getting the affected drive replaced, naturally thinking it was dead. I got the drive replaced without any issues from the friendly chaps at Seagate, plugged it in and rebuilt the array without any issues and with everything back to normal. Just recently the exact same event occurred and I knew the chances of that exact same set of occurrences happening was extremely rare.
Continue reading: Consumer Alert - QuickTime plays havoc with RAID in Vista! (full post)
On the Test Bed - Corsair DDR-3 1066 has arrived!
Recently we received some engineering sample DDR-3 1066 memory from our friends at Corsair.
We will be comparing it against DDR-2 at a range of different settings on two similar Intel P35 boards very soon, which should prove for some interesting test results.
For now, here are some photos for you to enjoy...
Continue reading: On the Test Bed - Corsair DDR-3 1066 has arrived! (full post)
More retail Radeon HD 2900 XT cards appear
If you still have got enough RD 2900 XT news for today, then bad luck - here is some more for you addicts.
Here are some shots of retail cards from Sapphire, MSI and GeCube. The latter two cards are just using the reference cooler but Sapphire does things a little differently.
Continue reading: More retail Radeon HD 2900 XT cards appear (full post)
Radeon HD 2900XT launch and for sale May 14 - not the 2nd
Reading around today, some over excited folk got their wires crossed and claimed AMD would be launching their upcoming R600XT on May 2nd.
That's simply not correct - Nvidia is launching the 8800 Ultra on May 2nd at a retail price of at least $999 USD but supply will be very low due to yield and pricing related issues. The word on the streets of Taipei tells us that unless Nvidia reduce their 8800 Ultra pricing, you'll have a hard time actually buying this part.
We got a little hot under the collar when the rumors starting circulating around that the Radeon HD X2900XT was being released on May 2nd but after some simple phone calls to our friends here in Taiwan, they confirmed the launch is May 14 and product should be for sale on the day or soon after with fairly decent quantity.
Continue reading: Radeon HD 2900XT launch and for sale May 14 - not the 2nd (full post)
CeBIT 2007 - Extreme overclocking by Coolaler
Our good friend Coolaler from Taiwan has teamed up with G.Skill at CeBIT to run some extreme overclocking demonstrations of the Core 2 Extreme processor.
Operating at around -50c using LN2 cooling they managed to impress hitting a maximum CPU clock speed of 4.5GHz (500MHz FSB x 9) and they had DDR-2 memory humming along nicely at 1300MHz DDR or PC2-10400.
Continue reading: CeBIT 2007 - Extreme overclocking by Coolaler (full post)
CeBIT 2007 - Sapphire's Quad Crossfire working!
A little while ago our friends at Sapphire announced they were going to produce dual Radeon X1950PRO cards and it seems like they are finally ready. Not only are they ready but they have a Quad Crossfire system up and running at CeBIT.
Woo, holy smokes! Cheers to the boys at PC Hardware and Games in Germany.
Continue reading: CeBIT 2007 - Sapphire's Quad Crossfire working! (full post)