For a little over $130 you can now buy a dual core processor but the question is, is it any good? We answer that question and a few more in the process in our first ever cheap dual core shootout.

BTX hasn't gotten much traction in the homebrew PC community, but it's becoming more common in off-the-shelf systems. Will BTX ever be viable for build-your-own?

ExtremeTech

SLI patch was probably the last secret weapon of ULi before it got acquired by NVIDIA earlier this year. It is now confirmed that the SLI patch function on the Uli 1697 will no longer work with Forceware 81.98 and later.

We heard that NVIDIA is preparing the highest performing flagship GeForce Go 7900 GTX for launch soon after the GeForce Go 7900 GS pre-announced by Toshiba earlier on and the 3DMark05 score for GeForce Go 7900 GS is around 4700.

VR-Zone

We have just received an ASUS N4L-VM DH Core Duo Mini-ATX Motherboard for testing. Finally we can start to run our Yonah and see how good performing and efficient this alternative form of set-up can get.

Looks like Conroe ES are spreading. Victor Wang our own XS XIP introduced first initial results with CoreDuo E6600. Using upcoming mainstream i965 based mainboard and without any overclocking Super PI 1M test passed in just 21 seconds.

XtremeSystems.org

For more than 3 years, AMD has been the official sponsor and technology partner for the world's fastest red racing group: the Scuderia Ferrari team. In this feature story, we'll take a deeper look at the technological partnership that has since yielded numerous victories for the Prancing Horse.

AMD finally begins shipping revenue generating parts from Fab 36, updates the world on their plans for 65 and 45nm and as a whole grows as a company.

AnandTech

LCDs are all the rage these days, with prices crashing to acceptable levels; it has never been easier and indeed more beneficial to have an LCD panel than today. However, is it good enough to just have an LCD panel? Shouldn?t there more to it? Shouldn?t it, for example, be more of a display than just a monitor?

A while ago we linked to a review that stated the zalman VF-900 rocked and the Accelero x2 failed bad. Well i decided to test that and bought an accelero x2 at w1zzards suggestion.

3DChipset

I had been in the market for a new graphics card for several months when the PNY Nvidia Geforce 6800 GS AGP popped up for about $200 (CAD) on Tigerdirect, so I threw caution to the wind and grabbed it while it was cheap.

How much video card do you need? Which ones deliver the most bang for the buck? We've tested an amazing collection of 17 of the latest graphics cards that cost between $80 to $600.

OCIA.net has teamed up with CoolerMaster in a year-long, month-to-month giveaway promotion.

CoolerMaster has been sponsoring reviews and giveaways here at OCIA.net for several years now and we are pleased to be working with them again on what is easily the biggest giveaway news in site history. Each month this year, Coolermaster will be sponsoring a different giveaway here in the OCIA.net forums just for you guys! CoolerMaster is committed to giving back to the community as shown here by their efforts and generosity.

Looks like a redesigned HSF is coming too. I wonder what ATI will come up with, as since the X850, all its high end cards have a similar heatsink.

techPowerUp

We have received some rather interesting info on AMD's new range of Socket AM2 processors. According to internal AMD documents, system builders will be able to purchase the new AM2 processor starting on May 15th. Dual core and single core Athlon 64 processors will be available as well as 64-bit Sempron processors.

DailyTech

China's HKEPC has the scoop on AMD's end of life timetable for Socket 940 and 939 Opterons. The chips will be progressively terminated after the introduction of the new 1,207-pin Socket F, which will be land grid array-based and enable support for DDR2 RAM. On the Socket 940 front, the Opteron 244 and 844 will be the first to go, with last orders taking place in the first quarter of this year.

The TechReport

A brief look on XG Duro 900, a 900-watt power supply with four independent 12 V rails, targeted to the most power-hungry user.

Hardware Secrets

ATI have previously mentioned that their next generation, DirectX10 architecture would leverage much of the technology designed for "Xenos", ATI?s graphics processor developed for the XBOX 360, and we surmised that would equate to the R6xx generation featuring a unified shader architecture at the hardware level.

Looking to upgrade your display? We have five of the best widescreen monitors on test. Check out how they perform in our image analysis and real-world gameplay tests. Not only that, but win goodies from little-gamers.com too!

Bit-Tech

Follow a visual history of PC Mag's relationship with Apple computers and products, from their first Apple cover story in 1983 on "Surviving an Apple to PC Switchover" to the present: a review on the Apple iMac (Intel Core Duo). Download past PC Mag articles and reminisce 30 years of Apple in the making.