Montevina - At Last!

The debut of the long awaited Montevina platform finally made its way down to our local region after having been launched at San Francisco on 14 July. While we would love to have been there for the initial launch, Intel hasn't let the speed of the Internet slow them down one bit with an exciting launch event held at the One Degree 15 Marina Club over at Sentosa Cove. Before we go into details on the event itself however, let's take a quick review of what the Montevina platform actually is and how it will affect you, the consumer.


Intel has decided to brand the new Montevina notebook platform under the same Intel Centrino branding that most people are familiar with, but positioning the Montevina platform as the second generation, i.e. the Centrino 2. It isn't really accurate, as the Montevina platform is actually the fifth generation of the Centrino platform, but Intel's deliberate branding by using Centrino 2 to differentiate the current generation from the older platforms may be the right kind of touch it needs to compete against AMD's equivalent new Puma notebook platform.

Let's start with the basics first. The Intel Centrino 2 platform's favorite number is 45, as the new platform will support the latest 45nm Penryn/Wolfdale based processors (similar to the Santa Rosa refresh) but offers up to 1066MHz FSB support compared to the 800MHz FSB support of the Santa Rosa platform. 45 also used for their Mobile Intel G45 Express Chipset, which promises to deliver a whole load of performance boosts in 3D graphics and decompression/acceleration of HD videos, thanks to the newer integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics engine. The graphics engine also boasts of DirectX 10 capabilities for quality integrated graphics gaming performance, but well, let's be fair here, we don't expect Crysis to run on "Very High" settings.

Apart from these newer features though, the Montevina platform seems more like a gradual increment that we've all have been used to since the days of the Napa, with minor enhancements that continue to build on the previous platform. While 45nm may seem like a big deal in Intel's marketing scheme, the availability of Penryn/Wolfdale based processors have been on notebooks since the beginning of this year for the Santa Rosa Refresh platform. As such, we aren't really too excited (yet) about the newer platform and while we do want to test out the newer laptops featuring the Centrino 2 platform, we aren't really expecting much of a performance boost (but we're still keen on being surprised).



Seen at the launch too were the various notebook models from the vendors that have already started embracing the Centrino 2 platform. Some of these models were also sporting WiMax dongles that are an optional feature for Intel Centrino 2 laptops

Lenovo's 15-inch ThinkPad T500 allows the user to switch between using the onboard integrated graphics and the discrete ATI Mobility Radeon graphics.

Toshiba's Qosmio G50 which is using an Intel P8600 mobile processor which features an 18.4-inch Full HD panel and a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT. Note the WiMAX dongle at the side.

HP's addition to the Centrino 2 platform was the 14.1-inch HP Pavilion dv4 which features a Blu-ray combo drive.
The ASUS G50V featuring the Montevina platform with a NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT and up to 8GB of DDR3 1066 RAM.

WiMax on the High Seas
As mentioned earlier, the Intel Centrino 2 platform comes with support for WiMax, the latest 4G broadband wireless technology that brings even more addictive Internet surfing experience to users on the go, being capable of easily covering entire cities and providing seamless surfing on-the-go. In Singapore, QMax is currently the sole WiMax provider and mainly caters to the marine industry but hopefully we should soon see more commercial usage soon. To fully experience WiMax, QMax took us out to sea while we surfed the World Wide Web on the newest Intel Centrino 2 laptops. Check it out.

Currently, QMax's WiMax coverage is currently only available for the southern parts of Singapore. This is due to the fact that QMax's WiMax currently caters to mostly the marine industry. Some parts of Singapore like the CBD areas are also covered.

In theory, you could probably drive around the entire island while still remaining connected with WiMax once the network infrastructure is fully deployed and the algorithms for base station transitions are up and running. QMax has said that they will soon be done with the migration of their older WiMax network to the newer version and will be able to provide their customers with a seamless Internet surfing experience. With that, we look forward to an even more seamlessly connected world without the interruptions and reconnections required on the current Wi-Fi networks.

OCZ Technology Unveils First Fatal1ty Brand DDR2 and DDR3 Memory

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and PC components, today announced the first memory modules available in their Fatal1ty Series after the partnership was announced last month. These high-performance memory kits were co-developed with the expertise of Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, 12-time World champion, to meet the specific needs of fellow gamers. OCZ Fatal1ty Professional Series kits are the official memory modules of Championship Gaming Series (CGS), and feature incredible performance to power through the latest PC titles and contribute to the success of professionals and everyday gamers.

“OCZ worked closely with Fatal1ty and his team to design new memory kits that pair perfectly with the top selling motherboards for a superior gaming experience,” commented Alex Mei, Chief Marketing Officer of the OCZ Technology Group. “Fatal1ty knows what it takes to win at the highest level of eSports, and these new kits deliver superior stability and performance to gamers whether you are a professional player on the Championship Gaming Series, or a weekend warrior looking to dominate when playing the latest titles.”

“The launch of Fatal1ty Brand memory is very exciting because I am working with OCZ Technology who makes top quality products,” says Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel. “Fatal1ty Gaming Gear is all about bringing equipment to the highest possible level to improve the gaming experience."

OCZ is dedicated to delivering premium gaming solutions that meet the unique demands of enthusiasts on all levels. Fatal1ty memory modules are designed to help deliver exceptional gaming visuals and overclocking potential to ensure that high-powered gaming PCs maintain unsurpassed stability. Featuring aggressive latencies, high densities up to 4GB, and blazing frequencies, Fatal1ty memory helps DirectX-10 PC games reach their full potential. Select Fatal1ty modules also feature EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) as an additional “plug and play” overclocking tool on DDR2 NVIDIA® gaming platforms.

The first memory kits to be introduced under Fatal1ty Professional Series line include:

OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 4GB Kits with CL 5-4-4-18 timings
OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 EPP-Ready 2GB Kits with CL 5-5-5-15 timings
OCZ DDR3 PC3- 10666 2GB/4GB Kits with 9-9-9-26 timings
Unleash the performance power of your gaming PC with Fatal1ty brand DDR2 and DDR3 memory. With the shared goal of strengthening the global gaming community, the OCZ Fatal1ty Series was tailored exclusively for the needs of gamers who require fast, reliable memory.

GeForce 9800M, 9700M Offer Performance and Energy Savings in a Broad Range

NVIDIA has released two lines of high performance graphics processors (GPU) for the notebook PC market, the GeForce 9800M series and the 9700M series. These are sub-classified into GT and GTS for the 9700M and GT, GTS and GTX for the 9800M. These new GPUs provide a wide range of options for manufacturers to choose from and design high-performance gaming and multimedia notebooks.

These 9800M GTX GPU is based on the same G92 core, and will outperform its previous generation 8800M GTX that also happens to be based on the same core. The rest are based on the G94 and the newer G96 cores. These GPUs are CUDA compliant and will be able to accelerate game physics using the PhysX API. They support NVIDIA Hybrid Power technology. Simply put, on notebooks with integrated graphics processors (IGP) along with these GPUs, the system will be able to switch over to the IGP when not gaming, and switch over to the GPU when heavy graphics tasks are running (such as gaming, 3D rendering, HD Video acceleration, etc.). Speaking of video, these GPUs support Powervideo HD technology, includes VP2 acceleration. There's no information on these GPUs' fabrication technology yet. Specifications provided below.

MSI Launches Montevina-based GX620 Notebook

MSI has launched the GX620 a Centrino 2-based notebook with the company's exclusive Turbo Drive Engine technology to enhance the speed of CPU. The GX620 includes the new ECO Engine power saving technology to extend battery running time. The ECO quick launch touch sensor allows consumers to switch among five different modes including Gaming, Movie, Presentation, Office, and Turbo Battery.

GX620 features a 15.4-inch LCD display, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 3D graphics card and MSI's exclusive vivid image enhancement technology. GX620 also features Digital/Analog 5.1 Channel headphone output and SPDIF connection. The GX620 features Intel Centrino 2 processor technology, including Core 2 Duo processor and PM45 Express chipset, to deliver mobile solutions and provide HD capabilities, wireless connectivity, and long battery life for Blu-ray movie playback, highlighted MSI.

Intel Slashes the Prices of Several Core 2 Duo CPUs, Cuts the Price of C2Q6600

Pentium developer Intel, today slashed the prices of several Core 2 Duo processors, and most notably has slashed the price of its 65nm Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU. The price of Core 2 Quad Q6600 drops 14%, from $224 to $193 in 1000 units tray quantity. In addition to making its most popular quad-core CPU cheaper, Intel has also slashed the prices of three 45nm dual-core Core 2 Duos. The Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 is now 31% cheaper, from $266 to $183. Intel's Core 2 Duo E8400 and E7200 CPUs are now 11% and 15% cheaper, fixed at $163 and $113 respectively.

PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 PCS OC Emerges

PowerColor is preparing an overclocked Radeon HD4870, the PCS (Professional Cooling System) model. This model uses 1 GB of GDDR5 memory and uses overclocked parameters, such as 800 MHz core. This card comes with a cooler made by Zerotherm comprising of heatpipes conducting to aluminum fins on either sides of a fan. According to TG Daily, this card could be based on the SuperRV770 concept, where high-performing parts are used along with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory. According to PowerColor, this cooler could keep the temperatures down by up to 20° C versus reference ATI cooler even at the overclocked 800 MHz core setting.

ZOTAC Unleashes GeForce 9800 GTX+

Powering the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ and GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition is a new NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ graphics processor with 128 screaming-fast processor cores. Each individual processor core features an ultra-fast clock speed of 1836 MHz on the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ and 1890 MHz on the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition; ready to take on all 3D related tasks from gaming to high-definition video playback.

"With the latest generation of ZOTAC GeForce 9-series graphics cards, the clock speed and performance of each individual processor core has become an important performance aspect," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "The highly clocked processor cores in our ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ and GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition deliver higher performance in gaming as well as NVIDIA CUDA compiled applications, resulting in a graphics card that delivers phenomenal performance for work and play."

The NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ graphics processor in the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ is also highly clocked at 738 MHz and paired with 512MB of blazing-fast 2200 MHz GDDR3 memory for high-resolution gaming. Stepping up to the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition yields even higher 750 MHz core and 2300 MHz memory clock speeds for even higher frame-rates and performance.

Featuring NVIDIA's Unified Architecture, the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ series deliver support for DirectX 10 with Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.1 enabled 3D games and applications for brilliant visuals and phenomenal frame rates.

The ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ series are ready for immersive gaming with NVIDIA PhysX technology. NVIDIA PhysX technology allows compatible games to offload physics processor to the graphics processor, allowing for more fluid and dynamic in-game physics such as more realistic weather and explosion effects.

"Environmental interaction and effects have always lagged behind life-like 3D visuals. With NVIDIA PhysX technology, environmental physics now catch up to visuals to deliver a fully immersive gaming experience that blurs the line between reality and the virtual world," Mr. Berger added.
When more graphics power is desired, up to three ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ series graphics cards can be installed in a single 3-way SLI ready platform. NVIDIA 3-way SLI technology delivers up to 2.8x higher frame rates for smoother game play.

NVIDIA HybridPower technology empowers the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ series with power savings technology. When installed in NVIDIA HybridPower compatible platforms, the system can turn off the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ or GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition when it's not in use to reduce power consumption for mundane desktop tasks.
Enhanced with NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology and hardware decode acceleration technology, the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ series is ready to deliver high-definition video playback with virtually no CPU utilization. PureVideo HD technology also enhances standard definition content to make standard DVDs rival Blu-ray movies for visual quality.

"Consumers are still happy with the quality of DVDs, which is why our ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ and GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition with NVIDIA PureVideo HD processing enhances and cleans up standard-definition content to look beautiful on high-definition displays," Mr. Berger said. "However, when consumers are ready to upgrade to Blu-ray high-definition discs, our ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ and GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition will be ready to decode the content in hardware for smooth playback and brilliant visuals."

It's time to play with the new ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ and GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition.

General details
New ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ and GeForce 9800 GTX+ AMP! Edition
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
512MB of GDDR3 memory
128 processor cores
NVIDIA PhysX ready
NVIDIA CUDA ready
3-way SLI ready
HybridPower compatible
PCI Express 2.0 interface (Compatible with 1.1)
DirectX 10 with Shader Model 4.0 compatible
OpenGL 2.1 compatible
PureVideo HD technology
High-definition hardware decoding acceleration
Dual dual-link DVI - up to 2560x1600
XIII Century game bundle

Diamond Multimedia First to Launch All-in-wonder HD Series Cards

Being a niché product is never easy unless you pack what the public likes into a product. A graphics card, a sound card (HDMI output), a HD-DVR TV tuner, all rolled into one: ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder HD. This graphics card features ATI Theater 600 chip, a graphics core based on the RV635 (Radeon HD 3650).

Diamond Multimedia launched two products, the All-in-Wonder and the All-in-Wonder HD Premium, with the Premium featuring an expansion bracket with additional connectors.

Danamics Innovates the First Liquid-metal Based CPU Cooler

Here's something new: A CPU cooler that comprises of a circulatory mechanism of liquid-metal, the liquid-metal has higher thermal conductivity than other liquid media, flowing liquid metal across an array of metal fins to disperse heat, and the cycle continues. What's more, the liquid is inextinguishable. That's 'cool'. Danamics innovated such a cooler for today's CPUs called the LM10.

The cooler also has no moving parts. The pump that circulates liquid-metal across tubes doesn't have them either. The pump functions on the principles of electromagnetic flow, the ferromagnetic liquid is subjected to flow caused due to changes in polarity of electromagnets. With no moving parts, the MTBF is substantially increased. Of course, you can use a retention module of some sort to hook up a fan or two on each side of the heatsink. This product will be available soon.

Sapphire Intros Toxic Radeon HD4850 and Radeon HD4850 1GB

Following the introduction of the highly acclaimed HD 4800 series, SAPPHIRE Technology, the leading manufacturer and worldwide supplier of AMD/ATI based graphics solutions is now shipping two new models of HD 4850 providing a further choice of price:performance points for the enthusiast.

The new SAPPHIRE HD 4850 1GB is a new version of the HD 4850 designed by SAPPHIRE for the user who demands more memory for specific applications like rendering. It offers similar overall performance to the standard model, with clock speeds of 625MHz (core) and 993MHz (memory).

Delivering higher performance to the enthusiast for only a small price premium over the standard model, the SAPPHIRE HD 4850 TOXIC Edition has been designed by SAPPHIRE to run significantly faster – shipping with core clock speeds of 675MHz and fitted with 512MB of high speed memory operating at 1100MHz. It also features a Zalman heatpipe fan, providing more efficient cooling - running at much lower temperatures than the standard design – as well as quieter operation and more headroom for performance tuning.

Both models use the PCI-Express Gen2 interface, and feature dual connectors for CrossFireX cables, allowing two or more cards to be used together on a CrossFireX compatible mainboard for even higher graphics performance. Both are based on the powerful new graphics architectures from the ATI division of AMD, incorporating 800 process units, improved memory management architecture and an upgraded hardware video decoder.

All SAPPHIRE graphics cards in the HD 4800 series incorporate the latest ATI Avivo HD Technology for enhanced Video display and feature a new generation built in hardware UVD (Unified Video decoder) considerably reducing CPU load and delivering smooth decoding of Blu-ray and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, as well as Mpeg files. In addition to two, dual-link DVI outputs, and TV-Out, a dedicated HDMI adaptor delivers both audio and video output on a single cable for direct connection to an HDMI ready display.

SAPPHIRE HD 4800 series graphics cards are Microsoft Windows Vista Premium certified and supported by the ATI Catalyst suite of software, ensuring customers have ongoing access to software updates for performance, stability and added features. Like the previous generation, these cards support DirectX10.1 for enhanced rendering performance and lighting effects.

960 SP-laden RV870 in the Works, and more

Sources at TSMC told Hardspell that the next graphics processor (GPU) by ATI/AMD, the RV870 in the works have specifications such as:


40nm or 45nm fab process
140 sq. mm die size
192 ALUs, 960 stream processors
256-bit GDDR5 memory controller
It is believed that this GPU could perform 1.2 times better than RV770, purely based on the paper-specs.

Another interesting news is that R800, unlike its predecessors the R700 and R680, might not be a dual-GPU card but the world's first dual-core GPU.

Possible Specifications of the GeForce GTX 350 Emerge

Hardspell released is list of possible specifications for the GeForce GTX 350 graphics processor (GPU):



- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 350
- GT300 core
- 55nm technology
- 576 sq.mm die area
- 512bit GDDR5 memory controller
- GDDR5 2GB memory, doubled GTX280
- 480 stream processors
- Grating operation units are 64 the same with GTX280
- 216 GB/s memory bandwidth
- Default clock speeds of core: 830MHz, shader: 2075 MHz, memory: 3360MHz (effective)
- Pixel fill-rate 36.3G pixels/s
- Texture fill-rate 84.4Gpixels/s
- DirectX 10, no DX 10.1 support yet.

R700 Launch in for Wet-Weather, GTX 280 Slash Coming Up

In what could be a serious blow to AMD's R700 dreams as the company struggles to survive, NVIDIA could be working out another price-slash for the GeForce GTX 200 series, signs of which are already surfacing. You can get a GeForce GTX 280 for US $440. American e-tailer Newegg has already put several brands' GeForce GTX 280 on shelves for $440 (listed here), lower than the launch-price of the GeForce GTX 260.

Implications are:

This paves the way for a 'GeForce GTX 280 Extreme', a new model which has been put on pre-order on British website OCUK (covered here).

While board partners seemed displeased at the current market trend with the GTX 200 series (covered here), all of a sudden, they are all offering price-cuts. Could NVIDIA be subsidizing these products, given that some reports suggest poor reception of these products in the North American markets?

Assuming the R700 comes in at around $499 and $549, it loses badly to the GTX 280 at its newest price on both fronts of price/performance and performance per Watt.

No price-cuts for GTX 260 have been noted, showing this cut is very much specific to the GTX 280, serves two purposes: 1. Phasing out the 65nm parts, 2. striking R700 when it hurts the most, during launch.

While NVIDIA has the resources to maintain the leadership of GeForce GTX 200 (by affording to slash prices), AMD doesn't.

Although the new $440 price tag looks tempting, you could wait for the R700 to launch, following which a more informed decision on your part could be made.

WoW Turns Woo, New Achievements Added

World of Warcraft (WoW), the largest MMORPG, is fun. People have gone lengths and breadths to achieve higher in the game. Those endless hours of playing it comes at a cost, the WoW subscription. But once you reach a high level (say 70), and own lot of gold, and basically have all achievements under your belt, your inclination to play the game retards. The fact that you have to pay to keep your subscription alive only makes it worse. For you, it means that you're bored, WoW isn't fun anymore, and so you could join another MMORPG. For Blizzard (now Activision-Blizzard), it means losing revenue. Not that they're short of it, but no company would want to lose it.

In what can be seen as a bid to woo such players and maintain their patronage, new achievement levels have been added to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King Expansion pack. Similar to the achievements you have with console gaming, players will now be awarded titles, gear, bragging rights for several tasks, serious thru trivial. They can be as serious as defeating scores and scores of enemies or as trivial as getting a hair-cut done. Custom animations and sounds would accompany each achievement earned and in-game pets, special clothing and titles will also be awarded. According to Blizzard, these rewards will be “purely cosmetic” and won’t affect actual gameplay.

NVIDIA Slates nForce 730i MCP for August 2008

This August, NVIDIA plans to release its latest desktop core-logic (chipset) for the current Intel platform processors, the nForce 730i MCP, also known as MCP7A. The MCP7A features a GeForce 9-series mGPU dubbed IGP. Two variants, the MCP7A-U with a GeForce 9400 graphics core and the MCP7A-S with GeForce 9300 are known so far. Both IGPs carry 16 stream processors, they differ in specifications such as the GeForce 9400 featuring a core frequency of 580MHz and shader frequency of 1500MHz, while the GeForce 9300 to be clocked at 450MHz and 1200MHz core and shader respectively. The MCP7A supports a FSB up to 1333MHz, dual-channel DDR2 or DDR3 memory, and PCI Express 2.0. The GPU is based on NVIDIA G86 graphics core, which supports DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0, supports HDMI, dual-link DVI, DisplayPort and D-sub connections. It will also support Hybrid SLI, PureVideo and CUDA technology.

Following the August launch, motherboard vendors could start shipping boards come September.

Intel Could Price its Next Highest Offering At Moderate Price

"Moderate" is a very relative term here. The Taiwanese industry observer DigiTimes reports that the next highest desktop CPU offering from the silicon giant Intel wouldn't be priced like the current Core 2 Extreme QX9770, QX9775. It could be as much as US $500 cheaper, that's $999 in 1,000 unit tray quantities. Expect the PIB (processor in a box) unit to cost on par with the current Core 2 Extreme QX9650. The highest offering from what we know, is a 3.20 GHz Bloomfield core based processor with in the LGA 1366 package.

In addition to this 3.20 GHz Extreme CPU, Intel will also introduce a performance version clocked at 2.93 GHz and quoted at US$562, and a mainstream version running at 2.66GHz and carrying a price tag of US$284. All three models will run on X58 chipset motherboards with the new LGA 1366 socket.

Point of View releases GeForce 9800 GTX+

Eindhoven, Netherlands -- POINT OF VIEW launches the GeForce 9800GTX+, an upgraded version of one of the fastest single GPU graphics card on the market, the GeForce 9800 GTX.

The GeForce 9800GTX+ has major improvements compared to its predecessor. The GPU has been down-sized to 55nm, which offering a major improvement to its power consumption efficiency, operating temperature and core speed. Its 512 MB DDR3 memory is running on 2200 MHz whilst the GPU core has a speed of 738 MHz. The speed of the internal processors has been increased with almost 250 MHz to an impressive speed of 1836 MHz.

The GTX+ graphics card also supports three fairly new technologies:

- NVIDIA PhysX
True-to-life Water, cloth, explosions and smoke! Experience even more realistic visual effects with the Physics accelerating technology!

- NVIDIA CUDA
This technology allows other than graphics software to be run over the GPU. Have 128 sub-processors decode your video many times faster than conventional (CPU-based) software.

- NVIDIA Hybrid Power
Not playing any games? Switch to your integrated graphics chip for minimal power consumption. A smart solution for a greener environment.

Hardcore performance and perfect frame rates with Microsoft DirectX10 Shader model 4.0! Experience you favorite games in the highest resolutions and detail level with the brute force power of the GeForce 9800 GTX+! And if that’s not enough, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ has support for both 2-way and 3-way SLI, for the ultimate gaming performance.

This graphics card will be available from the 16th of July. Visit the “Where to Buy” section of our website for a sales point in your country. For more information, please visit www.pointofview-online.com

Hitachi Working on Mass-Producing 5TB Hard Drives

Solid-state disks may be eating into the territory of traditional hard drives, particularly in laptops, but that doesn't mean spinning platters are on their last legs – particularly not at Hitachi.

Hard drive specialist Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is continuing to push HDDs to the limit, with a strong emphasis on increasing capacity and with a clear goal in mind.

Giant plans

The Japan-based company has stated that it plans to have a commercial 3.5-inch hard drive on the market that can hold 5TB by 2010. It aims to achieve this with write heads that use something called current perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR).

CPP-GMR pushes data density above 1TB per square inch, a long-awaited threshold that promises drives many times larger than those available today.

Now, where was I?

As for what can be stored on such disks, Hitachi's Yoshihiro Shiroishi explains, "By 2010, just two disks will suffice to provide the same storage capacity as the human brain."

In other words, a next-generation hard drive will be able to recall that trip to the seaside in 1976, but never where it left the car keys last night.

ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5

DAMMIT, They Are Back!

Grabbing the headlines this month with a flurry of product launches and announcements on all fronts, AMD looks to be back in the thick of the action. It's still early to give the verdict about some of these developments but they certainly give substance to the upbeat tune that AMD was singing to the media recently. Following our review of AMD's new 65W TDP quad-core Phenoms, we return again today to graphics with the first GDDR5 equipped graphics card, the Radeon HD 4870.

As you would have known from our article on the Radeon HD 4850, the new Radeon HD 4800 series has restored the balance to the Force, we mean graphics scene, and NVIDIA has been forced to get more competitive (and realistic) about its prices. Having a smaller die at a 55nm manufacturing process allows ATI to price its GPUs at such competitive prices, while its strategy of relying on multi-GPU configurations to combat NVIDIA's more powerful single GPUs look quite feasible, at least from the CrossFireX performance benchmarks.

Since we have already looked at the architecture of the Radeon HD 4800 series previously, we won't be covering that here and instead, go right to the card itself and the benchmarks. Of course, before that, here's what you can expect to find on the Radeon HD 4870. Essentially, it is a higher clocked 4850 that uses GDDR5 memory. This new memory format has a higher overall data transfer rate; it's about four times the memory clock so 900MHz on the Radeon HD 4870 works out to be 3600MHz effectively, giving it the most bandwidth of any single ATI card past or present. (While 3600MHz is not exactly accurate, it's a fair way of stating the 'clock speed' such that we can compare ATI and NVIDIA using the same measurement scale.)

The MSI Radeon HD 4870 512MB

We got a pair of these Radeon HD 4870 cards in our labs, just perfect for a CrossFireX setup. Results for that and all the rest are in our benchmark section but before that, let's see what the bigger sibling (literally) of the Radeon HD 4800 series bring to the table.
The reference Radeon HD 4870 comes with a familiar looking dual-slot cooler.
Removing the cooler from the card, you can see that it has two heat pipes, connecting the aluminum radiator to the copper base. A 80mm fan sucks cool air from outside and forces that over the heatsink.

The single slot cooler on the Radeon HD 4850 was good for just one thing: saving you an expansion slot if you're in the CrossFire mood. The 4850 itself was running much warmer than we had expected and though one could always point the finger at the cooler, ATI probably felt that it was worth the trade-off. So how about the dual-slot and beefier cooler on the 4870?

Well, it's slightly better. The fan will spin at 100% like quite a few other high-end graphics cards at boot up but the noise wasn't too bad once you get pass that stage. It's definitely audible and the temperatures too were quite high. It's not as high as the 4850 but it will still scorch your fingers if you touch certain parts. Consisting of two heatpipes with a solid chunk of copper for the base, it's quite a hefty heatsink and hence not exactly a card you can toss around easily.

Clock speeds on the Radeon HD 4870 are naturally higher, with the RV770 core at 750MHz, compared to 625MHz on the Radeon HD 4850. Memory differs the most of course, with the GDDR5 (from Qimonda) on the 4870 giving it an effective 3.6GHz clock speed and with ATI claiming that the new memory format can go up to 5GHz in the near future. Most of the Radeon HD 4870 boards you'll find now are likely to be reference designs and will look similar to the ones we have shown here, though overclocked ones have been announced by BFG and Diamond Multimedia.


The Radeon HD 4870 comes with two 6-pin power connectors and requires a decent PSU of at least 500W. If you're planning CrossFire two of these GPUs, a minimum PSU rating of 600W is recommended.
The rear I/O outputs on the Radeon HD 4870 are the usual ones, a pair of HDCP compliant DVI outputs and a mini-DIN. There's also the exhaust vent for the warm air passing from the heatsink.

Two CrossFire connectors mean that up to four 4870 cards can be linked but that would require a very high-end system.

The Best is Yet to Come

As our title suggests, the top 'single' GPU from ATI is yet to make its debut. The R700 technically consists of two RV770 GPUs in CrossFireX mode, so one can already take a rough estimate of its performance from our CrossFire results here. Of course, having two cores on a single PCB will no doubt save users an expansion slot and for the novice, it's probably easier to install and setup, not to mention it does not require a CrossFire compatible board. So those on NVIDIA motherboards may 'defect' without needing to get a new motherboard too. With the number of Intel motherboards in the market, there's hardly a lack of choices if you go the dual card route.

Our benchmark results showed the reason why reviewers and users have been crowing about the new Radeon HD 4800 series. We have already seen the capabilities of the Radeon HD 4850 earlier but the 4870 model is certainly a notch higher and you'll find significant improvements, sufficient to justify the roughly US$100 premium going from the 4850 to the 4870. CrossFire performance also seemed to have improved with the newer drivers we tested and with ATI committed to releasing drivers regularly, this is good news for enthusiasts.

The closest GPU from rivals NVIDIA in terms of performance is in most cases, the GeForce GTX 260 and at its listed retail price of US$399, it may find the US$299 Radeon HD 4870 too aggressive in pricing and performance. The GTX 200 GPUs does appear to have rather impressively low idle power consumption for their size, though their peak consumption is higher than ATI. In the end, it's the relatively warm core temperature readings that we got for the Radeon HD 4800 series that's stopping us from giving them a perfect score. The results too in a few cases still favor the NVIDIA equivalent, but for the most part, ATI has managed a strong showing of performance blended with a great price tag.

NVIDIA has led the industry with performance and price competitiveness for a couple of generations now, while ATI relied on supporting new standards and features that have generally being underused by developers (tessellation and DirectX 10.1 comes to mind on this generation) along with the excellent Avivo HD features to distinguish its products. Finally, the red team has produced a GPU worthy of competing and looks to reap the benefits of lower manufacturing costs with its smaller die. For consumers, what matters is the bottom line and with prices like these (and dropping too for the Radeon HD 4850), it is good times ahead.

Only Hardcores Need Apply: Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME Preview

Built With Overclockers in Mind

People expect big things when a product gets labeled "EXTREME", and today we take a quick look at Gigabyte's latest offering for overclocking enthusiasts, the GA-EP45T-EXTREME.

A glance at the motherboard's key highlights quickly reveals that Gigabyte isn't fooling around; when they say "EXTREME", they mean it.

Based on the Intel P45 and ICH10R chipset, this board comes with a horde of features that may seem excessive:

The layout is clean, neat and everything is clearly
labeled, though the DIMM slots seem a little too close
to the primary PCIe graphics slot.

CrossFire support for up to three ATI graphics cards, dual PCIe Gigabit LAN ports, elaborate heatsinks including a water cooling block, a whole slew of expansion slots, connectors (including three FireWire 400 expansion ports), and several LED status indicators for the overclocking crowd.


Here you can clearly see the expansion slots, as well as the three FireWire 400 expansion slots and the others.
The rear I/O panel has both coaxial and S/PDIF digital audio connectivity, dual Gigabit LAN ports, 8 USB ports and even PS/2 ports for those still using their old keyboards and mice.




More importantly however, what makes this motherboard a step up from the rest are the efforts Gigabyte took to ensure it runs extremely cool. Apart from the all copper heat pipes and heatsinks, the GA-EP45T-EXTREME can also be water-cooled. Furthermore, it comes with a huge kitchen-like apparatus that Gigabyte calls the "Hybrid Silent-Pipe", which acts as a massive radiator, constantly drawing in cool air. Drawing a page from their graphics card coolers, especially their Silent-Pipe II version, Gigabyte has now incorporated this idea to mount their Hybrid Silent-Pipe cooler that attached on to the Northbridge cooler.


Water cooling is optional of course, but it is something
that most overclockers would definitely want to do and
this board integrates a water cooling block.

However, this feature comes at a price. As seen in the photos, this expansion-slot hogging cooler is a pretty big piece of equipment and fixing it on to the motherboard will take up quite a bit of the board's real-estate. As such, its installation would render the PCIe x1 slot unusable. The PCI slot just after it is still useable, but barely when considering that the primary PCIe x16 slot is next to it. So more likely than not, these both of these expansion slots would be wasted.

You have to see it to believe it. This is the massive
radiator thing called the "Silent-Pipe"
that we mentioned earlier.

Also, we noticed that the DIMM slots are located a tad too much to the left. This might pose a problem especially if you have a large graphics card installed, because installing or removing memory modules in the future might require you to remove your graphics card first. On casual functional testing, the DIMM slots are still useable with the graphics card installed, but things can get complicated when the system is setup within a casing.

Thankfully, the GA-EP45T-EXTREME redeems itself with several useful features. The overclocking community would definitely appreciate the various LED alerts that come with the motherboard. Of note are the OC-Alert LED and TMP-Alert, which indicate the overclocking level/temperature of the CPU and Northbridge components respectively, all in a visual manner. We'll save more details for the actual review, but here's a parting snapshot of the board to keep your mouth watered:-



This is how the huge radiator thing fits
onto the motherboard.
Notice how it completely covers the PCIe x1 slot.