[H]ard|OCP

ABIT Interview

There is an interview with ABIT’s Scandinavian Marketing Manager, David Jarlstedt, posted today at Nordic Hardware. Most of the questions relate to USI / ABIT’s motherboard division takeover.

How much influence will USI have over ABIT’s assortment?

It’s hard to say at this point, but USI’s direct influence on our product range will probably be rather limited. It was mainly due to ABIT’s unique strengths in research and development that so many companies were interested in cooperating with us in the first place. We chose to go for USI because of their experience and uncompromisingly high quality manufacturing procedures.

Creating A Taskkill Batch File

Ever have your wife or boss walk in on you while you are doing stuff you shouldn’t be? Is it hard to close all those windows at once? Rojak Pot has help in the form of a creating a Taskkill batch file “how-to” ( this must happen to them a lot ).

Take, for instance, a scenario where you want to automatically close several of your memory-hogging applications, just by executing a single batch file. This would be particularly useful when you want to play games that require a lot of memory or run a particularly memory-intensive application.

ASUS PM17TU LCD

HotHardware, although they had a few minor gripes with the ASUS PM17TU LCD, ranked it overall very high on the ol’ heatmeter.

The ASUS PM17TU is a sharp-looking 17" LCD display that offers a native resolution of 1280x1024 with a rapid 3ms response rate. Offering both digital and analog inputs, this LCD is able to connect to a PC using either a DVI-D or standard 15-pin D-Sub connector.

Cooler Master Hyper48 KHC-L91

FrostyTech says that the once high-end Cooler Master Hyper48 KHC-L91 heatpipe heatsink is still a solid contender but it isn’t as mighty as it once was.

The Coolermaster Hyper48's all copper construction is augmented by four copper heatpipes that advance the flow of heat out from the base to the upper tips of the cooling fins. As we will see shortly in the synthetic thermal test results, the heatpipes play an important role. Really though, the most notable benefit of the Coolermaster Hyper48 heatsink is its quietness.

Gigabyte 8I945GMH-RH

Need a Micro-ATX LGA775 motherboard? Legion Hardware says that the Gigabyte 8I945GMH-RH is a decent board but the lack of overclocking features and poor 3D performance will turn hardcore enthusiast off.

Despite the poor 3D performance the fact that this chipset serves as an all-in-one solution is important. For just $100 US the 8I945GMH-RH offers just about every feature any user will ever need onboard.

Shuttle SB36G5M XPC

Intel Viiv + small form factor = Shuttle SB36G5M XPC. The SB36G5M’s features make it a prime candidate for anyone looking to build a HTPC or the likes.

What differentiates this unit from the other G5s is the chipset. Specifically, this is the first Shuttle to include Intel's new Viiv technology. Intended to incorporate home entertainment, this places the SD36G5M squarely in the media center market.

Why 7.1 Audio Is Overkill At Home

Mark Fleischmann over at Designtechnica says "don’t get stampeded by the 7.1 parade". The editorial does a great job explaining why you shouldn’t buy into all the marketing hype when it comes to home theater audio.

With the marketing of 6.1 and 7.1 surround, the industry has decisively outwitted itself. It has convinced many consumers to buy new receivers and more speakers. But it has also undermined the 5.1-channel standard, which is more appropriate for the home, slowing the acceptance of surround sound in general.

Arctic Cooling Accelero GPU Coolers

If you want to ditch that stock cooler on your new video card, this Arctic Cooling Accelero GPU cooler review might be of interest to you.

Arctic Cooling are currently refreshing there high-end GPU coolers and the first to arrive are the Accelero X1 and X2. The X1 has been designed to fit the 7800 GT or GTX, including the GTX 512MB, while the X2 is for (you guessed it) the X1800 and X1900 range from ATI.

Intel To Build Plant In Vietnam

Intel has confirmed that it is investing $300 million dollars to build a plant in Vietnam. The company also announced plans to expand its R&D operations in Israel.

Construction of this facility will begin immediately, according to Intel. When completed and opened in 2008, the Vietnam facility will be the seventh assembly site in Intel's global network and is projected to eventually employ about 1,200 people. Intel’s other backend sites include Penang and Kulim, Malaysia; Cavite, Philippines; Chengdu and Shanghai, China; and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Asustek Announces Reorganization

DigiTimes has a short new blurb that says Asustek will reorganize into 15 separate businesses effective March 1st. No other word is available at this time.

Taiwan-based motherboard maker Asustek recently announced plans to reorganize into 15 business units with the reorganization to become effective on March 1, according to the company as cited in today's Economic Daily News (EDN). After reorganizing, each business will have its own R&D, marketing and sales team, the paper added. The company, however, declined to reveal further details.

Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 HSF

FrostyTech says that the Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 HSF is a no-frills, aluminum heatsink that performs well and the fan is quiet enough that it won’t keep you up at night.

The heatsink handles the temperatures well, but isn't a high-performance thermal solution by any stretch. With a 125W heat load applied, the Alpine 64's rise above ambient temperature of 30.5°C is pretty nice considering noise levels remained at 43.9 dBA.

Video Game Legislation Tracker

ShackNews has the lowdown on a new thing called the Video Game Legislation Tracker. Basically this website is using Google Maps to track all the video game legislation around the country and keeps a running tab on what has passed, what is dead and what is still pending.

Thanks to the miracle of Google Maps, GamePolitics is now able to offer to readers Legislation Tracker, an interactive map featuring current video game bills and laws. This is a level of service we've been eager to add to GP for a long time.