Wednesday News part 2

About seven months ago, nVidia released their nForce2 chipset that supported dual-channel DDR333. This gave AMD the edge over Intel's 845PE which only supported single-channel DDR333. Intel responded to that threat with the release of the Springdale chipset. Since then, Intel has split the Springdale into two different chipsets: the 865 (Springdale) and the 875 (Canterwood). The primary difference between the two chipsets is that the Canterwood features PAT, which is touted to improve performance. The Springdale will be the cheaper of the two chipsets, focused towards the mainstream market. With the announcement of the Springdale new, AOpen has released a brand new motherboard, the AOpen AX4SG Max. AOpen has pulled out all of the stops on this motherboard, which is representative of the quality that AOpen puts into all their motherboards

With the initial excitement of the Canterwood beginning to come to an end in the computer enthusiast market, companies are now releasing their secret weapon: the Intel 865 "Springdale." The question is how closely related are the "Springdale" and the "Canterwood?" Well, the answer is VERY!

The MX 700 is the most comfortable mouse I’ve ever held. It fits perfectly to my hand and none of the buttons are uncomfortable to use. It features eight buttons in all: the normal two buttons, a clickable wheel, a button above and below the wheel for scrolling, another button below the wheel for task switching, and two thumb buttons for forward and back commands

They just lighten up your PC computer case for those of us in the dark

If you’re a QuietPC advocate, or you seek to reduce the amount of bay-eating, heat-generating, and energy-sucking 5.25” optical drives you have in your rig, or Heck, you’re an SFF proponent, then you’ll want to check out Samsung’s latest 52x/16x Combo drive. This packs a 52x/24/52 CD-RW drive with a 16x DVD-ROM mechanism all in one 5.25” space. Best of all, it’s only a fraction of the price of a DVD+-RW device, and less than 2 separate drives as well.. Here’s a snip:

“The recent surge of SFF (Small Form Factor) computers have caused a bit of a stir in the optical drive market. Looking to be as small as possible, the cases arrive with only one optical bay. Most SFF owners I have met opted for a DVD-ROM drive, however most of these drives tend to have rather lackluster CD-ROM reading speeds. Oh, and you want to back-up something? Too bad, as these drives have no write capability. Unless you are willing to spend upwards of three hundred on a writable DVD drive, you are left out on the pasture to decide whether you want support for DVDs or CD-RW capability. Without a doubt, this is where the Samsung SM-352B Combo drive steps in...”