CoolTechZone.com and ECS are proud to announce our new giveaway for two 945P-A motherboards.

ATI has prepped their new X1600 Radeon Mobility GPU for release today marking the first mid-level next generation notebook part since the X700 and 6600 GPUs. Does this 90nm X1600 have the muscle and light step to make a great notebook solution?

We asked ATI some questions about the Crossfire technology and the second generation Crossfire capable VGAs. And we got some interesting answers. For instance there will be drivers for the upcoming Intel-based MACs, but there won't be Crossfire support neither for MAC, nor for Linux. Also X1300 and X1600 won't be needing a Crossfire master card, but we'll have to wait another month for the drivers...

HWspirit

AusFX.com in partnership with NVIDIA and Gigabyte are giving away four Gigabyte GeForce 6600 256mb DDR2 Graphics cards.

It's that time of year again, the wonderful holidays where people are looking for ideas on gifts. HTPCnews.com put together an article outlining the best bang for the buck HTPC parts and even included three priced out complete HTPC's. Dollar values for these three machines are $1001, $1320 and even a complete machine for under $800. Check it out if you're in the market.

NVIDIA CFO Marv Burkett and VP Michael Hara at CSFB Annual Technology Conference 2005 revealed more about the GeForce 7 series where the 90nm G72 (GeForce 7200) and G73 (GeForce 7600) will be announced in Q1 next year. G72 will be 64-bit and support TurboCache technology. Marv Burkett revealed that GeForce 7200 and 7600 series will last between one to one and half year.

Intel plans to unleash the first quad core CPU (Kentsfield) within one year. The switch to 45 nm in 2007 will enable eight cores and up to 12 MB L2 cache (Yorkfield) per CPU. We x-rayed the complete CPU roadmap.

It seems that there is a serious compatibility issue between some of the Maxtor DiamondMax 9/10 SATA series with an early firmware revision and some nForce4 based motherboards. Some of the effected motherboards are the ASUS A8N series, the DFI LAN Party NF4, and some MSI nForce4 based boards.

NGOHQ

After our last round up, we're pretty dismayed with both the performance of GeForce 6800GT and Radeon X800XL in newer games. For the most part, these cards are just barely making the grade with minimum fps of 30 fps (with AA and AF) or even less than that. So, like most gamers out there, we want an even faster card, 30 fps minimum is just too low for real fluid gaming. Obviously, this means taking a look at the even faster GeForce 7800GT and GTX.

Today at the GamePC Labs, we're performing a direct comparison of the two fastest graphics cards on the market, nVidia's GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB against ATI's Radeon X1800 XT 512 MB. Both cards are targeted at the ultra-high-end gamer who demands the best in image quality, performance, and the finest graphics card experience, no matter what the cost.

While the launch of Yonah still won?t be until January of next year, we?ve had a chip for the past month, unfortunately, we haven?t had a motherboard to stick it in. We finally got one two days ago, which is why you?re seeing this article now, instead of more pictures of our Yonah posing alongside the Xbox 360.

In addition to demonstrating a unique cooling solution, we wanted to make a bold statement that a Pentium M computer can make a great gaming machine. Why is that important? When you're serious about making your computer quiet, heat becomes a very real issue, and the low heat output of a Pentium M comes in very handy! But how does it perform?

ULi M1697 is the next generation chipset supporting the Athlon 64, X2, FX processors. This single chipset enhances the functionalities of M1695 by introducing SATA II with NCQ and RAID 5 support. It also support HD-Audio. With a single chipset, manufacturers can cut down costs yet deliver performance on par with competitor's chipsets.

OCworkbench

ATI calls it Crossfire. NVIDIA calls it SLI. In Part I of our comparative look at dual-card graphics, we detail the two graphic giants' chipsets and what you get by investing in an Asus Crossfire or SLI motherboard.

Tom's Hardware Guide

Our friends at HKEPC Hardware have thrown up their review of Nvidia's GeForce Go 7300 mobile GPU, clocked at 350MHz core and 700MHz memory.

You may recall a few months back when AMD took out full-page newspaper ads to challenge Intel to a dual-core server duel. Intel declined to take up AMD on its offer, but the challenge got us thinking?

The holidays are creeping up and to ensure your preferred geek is appropriately gifted with only the most fitting of gadgets, widgets and thingamabobs, TechSpot is here to assist.

Here is something of interest for lovers of music and technology. Intel®, in partnership with Fender, have designed and produced an amazing one-off instrument, known as the Intel/Fender Telecaster Concept Guitar.

Our very own overclocking guru Robert "Crotale" Kilhberg has as usual spent a lot of his time at DreamHack in NordicHardware's booth doing some extreme overclocking attempts.

For those of you who watch the Athlon 64 market very closely, you may have noticed the sudden dry up of lower clocked E3 Venice CPUs. According to industry insiders, AMD appears to have discontinued shipping the Athlon 64 3000+ to major retailers, although AMD roadmaps predicted this far in advanced. However, sources have now indicated that AMD has also stopped shipping the Athlon 64 E3 Venice 3200+ and 3500+ Socket 939 processors too. Higher clocked Athlon 64 chips, like the 3800+, are in allocation.

AnandTech