X-bit labs undertakes another attempt to choose the best-among-the-best hardware for every buyer. Today we test a massive amount of graphics cards in unprecedented ? 30 ? number of benchmarks just to find out the best solutions at different price-points.

Not long ago, DFI went from being a mediocre board maker to a company that caters to enthusiasts with rock solid boards and extreme overclocking options. DFI?s success in the overclocking market appears to be almost instant, but we?ve been told that DFI was working on the enthusiast line of boards ever since 2000-2001 time frame.

ATi has originally planned to launch their next generation R520 at Computex Taipei 2005 but was faced several delays. According to sources from several AIB partners, the most likely launch for ATI R520 now is mid October. We have taken a first look at a R520 Rev 02 engineering sample!

VR-Zone

Willy Deeplung has been digging up info on the final product names for R520 or 'Raptor'. There have already been rumours circulating the net of X1800 being the top part, but we've learned more than just that...

HEXUS

The card you are seeing is the R520 XT. It is a dual slot solution and uses a cooler similar to the X850. ATI will also offer one-slot versions which will have less performance.

techPowerUp

Our friends at HKEPC Hardware have gotten themselves a ATi Radeon R520XT ES Sample card.

Comparing the ATI R520 Rev 2 card against the previous generation Radeon X850XT PE, we can observe that the PCB is longer at 229mm similar to GeForce 7800GTX. According to our source, the R520 core is design with 32 pipelines in mind but due to yield problem, not all the pipelines can be utilized.

Philips has demonstrated a new photonic textile at the IFA 2005 show in Berlin that can be used to display information. The company claims flexible LED-arrays are processed in the material, without affecting the softness or flexibility of the textile. In spite of this stuff this textile stays useful.

Gadget Flash

OCZ Technology recently surprised the industry by introducing a flash drive, named Rally, to its product lineup. The majority of us couldn?t have expected such a product from OCZ especially considering that the market is already soaked with flash drives from numerous manufacturers.

The big announcement we have all been waiting for has just been showcased by Steve Jobs at the Apple event in San Francisco. It's the Motorola ROKR E1, also known as the first iTunes compatible phone. More info at DV Hardware.

Logitech MX 610 Laser Cordless mouse with mail and IM buttons
Logitech presented a new wireless mouse, the Logitech MX 610 Laser Cordless mouse. It uses Logitech's 2.4GHz digital cordless technology and uses a laser instead of a LED for better tracking. The mouse displays the battery level and features fancy instant messaging and e-mail buttons which notify you when you receive a new message. The MX610 will be available in October for $59.99. More details Here

Toshiba has developed a prototype of a SED display in cooperation with Canon. A prototype was displayed at the IFA show in Berlin and the companies claim this technology combines the image quality and the response time of CTR displays with the thin profile of LCD and Plasma displays.
More details at DV Hardware

Microsoft officially announced today the new Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, revealing that the wired gaming controller works with Windows XP-based PCs and the new Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system.

TeamXbox

The Chinese website HKEPC Hardware have thrown up their Preview of Nvida's GeForce 6500 GPU!

Our friends at HKEPC has gotten themselves a R520 card and it will probably be officially known as Radeon X1800 when launch in early October.

We put a variety of games across several different genres on similar Intel- and AMD-based systems, and then measured performance during real playing. When it really matters most, which CPU delivers the goods?

ExtremeTech

I've got a PQI Dualchannel Kit (2x256MB) DDR500 memory for testing and decided to remove the heatspreader from one of the modules to see what chips are being used... and no PQI inside, see for yourself.

Onboard sound has always been considered a 'joke' as gaming goes, but that's not true anymore with Creative's Live! 24 onboard sound. Of course, most serious gamers probably already have an add-on solution such as Creative's Audigy 2. However, those of you who're still 'leaning against the fence' or planning to built a new system might want to reconsider buying an add-on sound card (except for maybe the X-Fi). Our test reveal some interesting results, while you don't get the full feature of Audigy and Audigy 2 sound cards, the Live! 24 bit onboard provides nearly the same level of performance, sometimes even better!

The liquid metal has significant advantages over other single phase liquid solutions. The thermal and physical properties of the material give it the ability to cool extremely high heat fluxes.

Swinging away from the usual hardware, today TweakTown are looking at two of the latest and greatest gaming mice from Logitech and Razer. In the left corner we have the Logitech MX518 and in the right corner we have the Razer Diamondback Plasma Edition. Both offer impressive features such as on-the-fly sensitivity adjustments and 1600 DPI accuracy. Which is the best for your gaming rig? Read on and find out our thoughts!

Deric over at PCPop has got the scoop again! this time the first screens of AGEIA's PhysX Physics Processor Unit.