It's based on the same R480 GPU that is used on ATI's top-of-the-line Radeon X850 series video cards with half of the pixel pipelines disabled in the BIOS. The GPU is clocked at a healthy 475MHz with eight of the sixteen pixel pipelines enabled, while all six vertex shaders remain intact.

When Apple Computer introduces new versions of its original iPod digital music player later this year, expect them to sport more home-grown components such as an Apple-branded scroll-wheel.

In the first part of this article, we recommend users to use Forceware 66.81 which is older instead of Forceware 77.72. It lacks the bugs affecting Splinter Cell and F1 Career Challenge plus it also offers overall faster performance than the 77.72.

Intel's dual-core Pentium M successor "Yonah" will ship at 1.67GHz, 1.84GHz, and 2.17GHz when it debuts early next year in 2006.

LaptopLogic

We?ve all seen the conventional mouse design, haven?t we? Majority of us are probably using that old, two-button mouse with a scroll wheel. Well, that?s about to change with Sony?s VGP-UMS50 USB optical mouse that?s targeted as the innovative mouse of its class. And quite honestly, Sony may just have the sleekest looking mouse in the market (excluding the gun-shaped mouse).

According to the current PCI Express Integrators List, ATI?s R520, R520 GL, RV515 XT and RV530 XT chips for desktops have successfully passes validation procedures. Additionally, the list indicates that there are new mobile products from ATI Technologies on the pipeline: M52GL, M54GL, M56 and M58, which are also officially PCI Express compliant.

X-Bit Labs

The Lian Li F1 Aluminum Computer Desk is nothing short of astounding. Overall design, construction & styling are brilliant. It's all aluminum, therefore light for its size & extremely sturdy. Cables can be easily hidden, & it has many drawers for storage. Being able to quickly tuck away cables is glorious because it eliminates clutter. It even comes with the all aluminum PC-V1000 case. This is without a doubt THE COMPUTER DESK!

techPowerUp

We've played Battlefield 2 with this new keyset and once we were used to the new locations of the commonly used keys the game became much easier to play. The enlarged movement, jump and other important keys were much easier to find. We appreciate the work of Ideazon to keep the new keysets coming and making gaming easier for ZBoard owners.

The German price comparison site Geizhalsis have Listed Creative's X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition Sound card for just over 200 euros.

OCAU reader "myne" has detailed his experiment in trying to get a PCI-E 16x card to work in a 1x slot and a 16x slot. It didn't quite go to plan, but it's an interesting read.

Now that you've decided you really, really want a new top of the range graphics card, and that the card has to be a NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX, which one do you buy? Let us try to make the decision a little easier here, with a three way shootout of GeForce 7800GTXs from Leadtek, XFX and BFG.

HEXUS

Tired of the first-generation of 7800 GTX cards with stock cooling? Then EVGA's e-GeForce 7800 GTX KO may be just for you! EVGA mixes ducted aluminum cooling with a copper heatsink and RAMsinks to deliver more effective cooling to the 7800 GTX GPU. On top of that EVGA includes higher clocks! Get a quick glimpse of this card in today's sneak peek article!

Speedlink has announced to introduce a new mouse of the "Razor series" on the Games Convention which will take place in Leipzig on August this year. The Razor Copperhead will be equipped with an exteme precise laser which can determinate the position of the mouse 1000 times per second. The mouse has a maximum resolution of 2000DPI.

techPowerUp

Affordable integrated 3D that rivals add-in-card performance? If Falanx Microsystems has their way, this is exactly what we will see in 2006.

[H]ardOCP

A while back, Logitech came up with a solution that would convert your writing into digital notes, thanks to a special pen, paper and software. Even though the Digital io Pen worked exceptionally well, its hefty price tag was pretty discouraging. Not to mention the continuous supply of special paper you would have to get exclusively from Logitech and the cost quickly added up for whom the pen was designed for ? college students and people that have to take a lot of notes.

In order to test Native Command Queuing's performance potential on the desktop, something completely different is needed?and we have just the thing. Join me as we explore a new collection of hard drive tests that showcase why NCQ really does matter on the desktop.

The TechReport

Microsoft is a close competitor to Logitech when it comes to appreciable keyboards and mice. Similar to the products from Logitech, Microsoft?s keyboards and mice are usually comfortable in terms of ergonomically friendliness and style. One of Microsoft?s latest optical mice is based on a design by world famous designer Philippe Starck, and we must say the mouse is quite delightful from the outside.

The Home Theater Connect DTS-610, a standalone, self-powered encoder that easily connects a media center or standard PC to a multichannel consumer electronics receiver. With this simple digital connection, all audio from the PC, including multichannel and DRM-protected content, can be played back on a surround-sound home theater system. The Home Theater Connect DTS-610 will be available in September for US$99.99.

With dual core CPUs out from both the camps, we measure the efficiency between single and dual core CPUs and find out who does it better- Intel or AMD.

T-Break

Much has been written about solid state disks (SSDs) becoming the next big thing in the IT industry. But as to whether or not we have enough knowledge of how it will revolutionize the industry is a different question. How much do we really know about SSDs? If we are to ask people on the streets, it wouldn't come as a surprise that they dont know much of what an SSD is. Even if they do know, most probably it would be limited to a USB pen drive, a CompactFlash or a Secure Digital card, which are more on the consumer side of the storage industry. Read more at DV Hardware