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Intel will shortly be releasing their latest Motherboard chipset the P45 the descendant of the P35 chipset. The release will be announced along with the boards full specification at the Computex convention later this month.

The Motherboard comes with DDR2 memory controller, for a start this isn’t promising. We must understand the current processors and motherboards aren’t at any advantage point considering price to performance.

The points i would like to highlight are the cooling properties of the Motherboard. The DrMos technology provided by MSI’s version of the board creates more surface space for the C.P.U heat sink. This will be appraised by over clocker’s pushing their 45nm processors. The PCI-E slots have also been considered, the twin ports are easily capable of running two gx2 GPU’s . These benefits come from MSI’s slim line copper heat sink.

MSI have also decided to eliminate their traditional single-phase design. MSI have decided to use two phase electrical voltages. This offers the P45 two phases of electricity to allow more voltage and finer tuning to the memory and Northbridge.

Lastly, MSI have decided to use a water cooling option for their Northbridge. MSI claim to be the first 2 in 2 out water circulation loop built onto a motherboard. I would like to see how this board shapes up with the competition. Keep posted for motherboard updates!

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I know I keep posting about Nvidia and Intel but the battle is still strong between both vendors. Nvidia will be releasing two actual CPU’s (Central Processing Units). As I’m aware Nvidia primary concern has always been graphics based hardware, where did the move to main processing start?

In June Nvidia will be releasing the Tegra APX 2500 and the CSX 600/650. The APX chip is 144mm2 in size. The processor can encode in 720p and decode at 14Mbps not bad for a mobile based processor consider it can push out D ready based specifications.

The CSX 600/650 the big brother of the Tegra is aimed at larger machines such as handhelds and laptops. The chip had 256k of L2 Cache and runs at 700mhz and 800mhz for the 650. This processor will support 1080p but only at a bottle-necked 24FPS. The processor has hard disk compatibility and can run under 3watts of power, the mobile device trend!

Considering Intel Atom processor run between 800mhz to 1.8Ghz why create these processor knowing the competition has a faster and more technological product? Could this be Nvidia’s way of taking the market, well some of it? I really cannot wait until we see some movement on Tegra APX and the CSX. Who will be their main consumer?

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The p45 Intel ChipSet is the latest board created from MSI and other vendors. The motherboard will compete against Nvidia’s latest Chipset the 790i. I wont be comparing the differences between both boards but explaining how Intel are trying to hit back at Nvidia.

When Nvidia’s latest motherboard chipsets were released the high end versions came with EPP. EPP is a memory technology based on Nvidia and Corsair designs. EPP which stands for Enhanced performance profiles is a memory technology for PC’s designed by Nvidia. The technology was designed to overclock memory easier and is only a Corsair/ Nvidia based feature. The memory is said to be qualified for performance and stability in SLI gaming machines, ironically.

Now as I was mentioning earlier Intel have released DrMOS, I will give you one guess to what this actually encompasses. DrMOS is a total re-design of the MOSFET integrating Hi and LI-sided MOSFETS and a driver. This bundle of smart hardware/ software features delivers extra tools within the BIOS for overclocking possibilities, hmmm. Any who, I will post the features below!

memory-Z - This tool is very similar to CPU-Z except CPU-Z is a x86 based software application and so everytime the the BIOS needs to be changed a boot is required! This includes all functionality from the BIOS. cool.

Multi-step OS Booster - This helps n00b based overclockers, Multi-Step allows three modes; disabled, mode 1 and mode2. Mode 1 will load the os and then apply over Clocking setting. Mode 2 will apply slight over Clocking and then apply the OS after the OS has loaded the booster will then complete the OC.

Extreme Voltages - Due to balanced 2 phase memory chipsets power design, the system can be overclocked to extreme voltages. The motherboard allows 128 different levels of voltage.

There are more features such as ClockGen Tuner and Advanced Memory Timings, I will continue to contribute to this article and hopefully give viewers a look on both sides of the fence.

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I recenty created a mainstream/ enthusiast computer based on the Dual Core AMD processor, AM2+ board and the 8800 GS graphics interface. In theory the computer should perform brilliantly in all circumstances of computation. I then realised this was not the case.

Relating Issues:

• Half Life 2 based gaming crashes - Freezing once connection has been made to server (Multi-player)
• Other gaming - Crashes when entering Graphics mode, Resolutions not being found

Nvidia based

• GeForce Release 175WHGL Ver:175.16
• GeForce Release 169WHGL Ver:169.32

both drivers resulted in low 8bit color windows interface rendering. Lowest resolution could only be used in windows environment

**Solution: I will be updating the Abit AX78 drivers and using EVGA Nvidia 8800 GS driver. Also un-blocking half life 2 based Internet Protocol ports.

I will be posted BIOS, Window driver updates with version and target links.

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Funnily enough I dont have any news on the new ATI graphics products but I do have information on Nvidia’s new Graphics card. Nvidia have already spat out the 9000 series so why bother bringing out another graphics card so early?

Well my theory is that Nvidia basically used a 8800 series architecture for the Nvidia GX2 and didn’t really bother creating a new graphics architecture where as ATI have. Ok ATI’s graphics is long awaited but why not wait for GDDR5 memory?

Right lets get to it then, The upcoming GeForce GTX 260/280 models based on the GT200 chip NV60 use a 65nm manufacturing process with 100 mm2 larger die size than the previous 90nm. The GPU has 16 processing block double compared to the 8800 GTX, 240 shader processors not to mention the new 5112 bit memory controller! which uses to be 384bits wide.

The GT200 die process is pretty pricey but isnt this the case for all graphics hardware? The result in buying the core would be increased logic processing, more than any other semiconductor made within the IT industry. This is why using a 576 mm2 die size equates to nearly 1 billion transistors!

Lets see what the outcome will be! I will hopefully have news on the latest ATI release for all you ATI fans out there. Its literally a waiting game for the enthusiast!

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Its yet another Friday afternoon, the only thing keeping me going now is the bank holiday weekend! Over the last week I built a AM2 + based system using ATI’s chipset along with Nvidias Graphics. I’ve had many issues regarding this specification. I will be posting an article regarding the issues so users can help find fixes to similar problems! So Keep Visiting!

Over the past week I’ve seen some changes in hardware technology, I havn’t come across any news regarding Intels Larrabee and Nehalem architecture. But were I’m currently seeing movement is within the Graphics market of the main players ATI and Nvidia.

As we are all aware Nvidia have released their 9000 series cards including the GX2 back in the first quarter of 08. ATI are releasing their new graphics series soon and Nvidia had to counter act this move. You can read my last article ATI Radeon vs Nvidia GT200 for more information on the two manufacturers.

If any viewers would like an article mentioned or have any ideas for future posts then please leave a comment.

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The first online retailer to release Intel’s Atom powered motherboards was announced today. The UK based firm Tranquil PC are selling the units ten pounds cheaper than the estimated retail price. The company have stated that the boards will start shipping within the first week of June.

The Intel D945GCLF mini-itx main board yes ITX not ATX. The system uses the 1.6 GHz Atom 230 processor. The impressive package can run Vista Home Media Center which in my opinion must be a fairy good system to tackle to-days multimedia requirements.

Intel have decided to adopt their latest 45nm procedure, the processor as mentioned before runs at 1.6Ghz uses 512Kb of L2 Cache, now consider a single core AMD/ Intel processor this little machine is on par with my old 3200XP machine, actually this board is faster! The Motherboard uses the Intel 945GC/ ICH7 Intel Chipset. This means the little machine has a in-built 10/100 LAN,PCI, SATA2 (3GB/s) and DDR2 533/ 667 Mhz memory.

Did I mention the motherboard is only 17cm by 17cm. For such a little package its a brilliant starter P.C but the system is so robust that the system could even be used as a bare-bone web server.

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Nvidia are in the process of changing their current product naming conventions. Over the past years Nvidia used a straight forward model naming structure such as the 6200 and 6600 obviously the latter having the highest specification. Nvidia can also mislead consumers because some versions of their 8800 series cards are faster than their 9600 series cards. To the majority of consumers this could be confusing.

Nvidia started to complicate model names when they created sub-model cards such as the 8800 GT, GS and GTS? What do all these mean? To the enthusiast this isn’t quite a problem because enthusiast will be familiar with their naming conventions from previous generation cards. The problem is obviously new consumers to the Graphics market. Nvidia may feel that because of the complicated model naming, new customers could easily buy products from alternative vendors.

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I previously written a blog on ATI’s possible graphics card products. You can view the post here amd ati 4800 series graphics cards.

Right lets get to it! ATI are releasing a new series of graphics card to their Radeon based products. The series will be called 4800 and is set to be released between the 15th and 22nd of June.

Coincidentally Nvidia release their new more advanced graphics cards the GT200. I dont think the Nvidia card will be a total re-vamp but a pumped up version of their GX2 additions.

ATI havn’t brought out a graphics card since Nvidias 8800 series of cards . This may be a slow process considering Nvidia are now brining out yet another graphics card, I think ATI have considered the market and timing well. If Nvidia had such a perfect product thats future proof for directx 10 why bring out GT200 based board? I think Nvidia mad e abad judgement by creating a GX2 card thats basically two 8800 glued together, its not exactly new technology.

Back to ATI, the 4850/ will use 512mb of GDDR3 not 4? and will be able to run four of the cards under a cross fire platform. The 4870 will use 512 GDDR5 and the 4870×2 will carry GDDR5 @ 1gig now thats impressive!

The pricing and performance of the cards are yet to be discovered but my bet is Nvidia will be running around like headless chicken thinking of a plan to fight back!

Keep posted for more information on these new graphics cards!

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