Take the pain out of that new off-the-shelf desktop or laptop setup by using these applications and utilities to clean up your new PC and make it even better from the very start. Read more at TWL.
For those using mid-range or low-end graphics cards it appears that a quad-core processor is a must for playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2. That said, those with high-end graphics cards are likely to have a quad-core processor anyway, so dual-cores are out then. Those with graphics cards such as the Radeon HD 4870 or GeForce GTX 260 should look into forcing the DirectX 9 rendering mode if they are unhappy with their current level of performance, as we did see reasonable performance gains when doing so.
Windows users have been customizing their desktops in a variety of ways for years. Whether by downloading themes and backgrounds, or using third party applications to change more obscure settings like the default logon screen, many people seem intent on personalizing every aspect of their operating system to something that fits their individual taste. And what better to alter than an icon that's always visible?
While we don't mind the Windows 7 Start Menu icon, and actually feel it's somewhat of a leap from the rectangular buttons of old, swapping out the orb for a new icon is quick and painless with the help of Kishan-Bagaria's Windows 7 Start Orb Changer. It even comes with a few examples to get you started. Read more at TechSpot.
EE Times revealed some details about Intel's 22nm lithography plans, you can read it over here.
One analyst has disclosed more details about the 22-nm lithography business at Intel. ''We believe, based on our industry checks, that Intel is about to finalize its decision on its 22-nm lithography vendors, and that ASML and Nikon are both expected to share the immersion lithography opportunity, unlike 32-nm where Nikon was the sole equipment supplier,'' said Jagadish Iyer, an analyst at Arete Research LLC, in a report.
As reported, ASML and Nikon split Intel's 45-nm lithography business. Nikon was the sole supplier for 32-nm. The 32-nm node was the first time that Intel used immersion lithography.
At 22-nm, Intel will continue to use 193-nm immersion lithography, this time, from two suppliers. Intel is ramping up its 45-nm processor lines, and has announced its 32-nm devices for delivery in 2010.
In Win introduced the Ironclad, a new full ATX steel with five 5.25" bays, support for up to six 3.5" HDDs, a 2.5" bay for SSDs, and eight PCI expansion slots The motherboard tray features holes for cable management and a hole at the CPU area to make it easier to swap coolers. The case ships with three 120mm fans and one 220mm fan, and features pre-drilled holes for watercooling tubes.
There are 8 expansion slots, with the 8th one making installing double-slot graphics cards on the last expansion slot easy. Each slot cover has a vent with dust-filters. Dust filters also make it to other areas such as the PSU air intake and the front grill.
The case has vents on almost every side. Fans include one 120 mm front, a rear 120 mm, a top 120 mm fan (while the top has slot for two 120 mm fans), a large 220 mm fan on the side-panel, which also has holders for four 120 mm fans instead of the 220 mm fan. Some panels also come with noise-dampening foam padding. Right below the expansion slots and above the PSU, there are four holes for water-cooling tubings, for two independent loops. The front-panel is located on the top, and has FP audio, two USB ports, two eSATA, and an IEEE-1394a.
TechEye claims NVIDIA has merged its Tegra and ION divisions. The GPU maker is still fighting Intel in court, but this piece of news seems to suggest the company has given up on chipset development.
What has been kept rather quiet, however, is the fact Nvidia recently took the strategic decision to merge its entire MCP group with its Tegra development team, melding the two into one big, nay HUGE 650 person family. Or somewhere thereabouts.
So with Tegra and Ion developers plugging away together, one has to wonder what Ion's long term prospects really are, although according to Ion product manager, Ken Brown, with a Gartner prediction for 40 million netbooks to ship within the next year, Ion isn't disappearing anytime soon.
Astronomers have discovered CoRoT-9b, the first observed exoplanet that is similar to those within our own Solar System. The planet is 1,500 light years from Earth, it's about the size of Jupiter and has an orbit similar to Mercury. Of the more than 400 discovered exoplanets, CoRoT-9b is the first one with "a temperate climate", scientists estimate the surface temperature of this planet is between about -20 and 160 degrees Celsius.
More than 400 exoplanets, or planets outside the Solar System, have been discovered so far but Dr Deeg, who works at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in the Canary Islands, explained that the others have all been "exotic".
"They are either extremely hot, being very close to the central star on short orbits, or they are on eccentric orbits, taking them close to and far from the central star, giving them extreme temperatures."
CoRoT-9b has a temperate climate. "This is the first planet where it makes sense to apply the models developed for planets within our solar system," said Dr Deeg.
GM is developing Enhanced Vision System, a new technology that turns your car's windshield into an augmented reality display. The system uses front-facing sensors and some cameras, and is capable of painting road lines on the windshield, it reads road-side signs to help with navigation, and helps you avoid obstacles and animals at night.
The Enhanced Vision System is designed with safety in mind just like previous implementations, but takes it to a whole new level. Let’s say it’s foggy or stormy. Ultraviolet lasers will paint road lines on the windshield and even read road-side signs to aid with navigation. An enhanced night vision mode even works with the new system to more percisouly identify road obstacles and animals.
All this is done with a series of front-facing sensors. This is combined with several in-vehicle cameras that track the drivers head and eyes to properly place the augmented reality layer on the windshield.
MSI released a list of its motherboards that fully support the six-core Intel Core i7-980X "Gulftown" processor.
To provide consumers more comprehensive upgrade services, MSI, the world-leading mainboard and graphic card manufacturer, announced today that all MSI Intel X58-based mainboards will support the latest Intel Core i7-980X Extreme, the 32nm B1 stepping native 6-core CPU. So in the beginning of product design, MSI's total consideration about upgradability is shown, and also the greater scalability to consumers is brought.
On the market, the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme processor, which adopts the cutting-edge 32nm process and B1 stepping, is the first native 6-core CPU for home and office use, and the multi-tasking performance provide by the CPUs will bring users the most impressive experience of performance. The MSI X58 mainboards have been a heat on the market and earned innumerable awards from worldwide media since they were launched for their outstanding specifications and performance. Another heat is expected from them for their full support and compatibility with the Intel Coire-i7 980X Extreme CPUs. As reasons above, MSI X58 mainboards will undoubtedly the first choice for the overclockers thirst for the extreme performance!
