Intel P55 Details Emerge: Nvidia Nside

We've been awaiting the arrival of Intel's forthcoming Lynnfield chips as hungrily as you have, so every little detail that sneaks out gives us something to gnaw upon. Today, Nvidia announced that Intel—as well as a slew of major hardware partners such as ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI—have licensed the company's SLI technology for inclusion in upcoming products. This means the chipsets that power those new socket LGA 1156 motherboards, which are based around the next-gen Nehalem architecture, will let you build systems using two or four Nvidia-powered GPUs.
Details on this next generation of boards has been slowly leaking out, as companies like MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus ready their product lineups. I've included a photo of the forthcoming ASUS P7P55D Deluxe motherboard, which will be among the first P55 based This announcement is the latest in a series of power plays between the two companies, which reached a head back in February. At the time, the two sparred over whether Nvidia could make chipsets that work with Intel's next-generation microprocessors. Nvidia claimed that a 2004 agreement with Intel allowed it to do so; Intel alleged that the four-year-old chipset license agreement between the two companies did not extend to its Nehalem products. Intel sued Nvidia, Nvidia promptly countersued, and a battle was born….which quickly ended.
This announcement seems to indicate a fresh agreement (though no word on new Nvidia chipsets), but it's not all wine and roses. Several web sites are reporting that in the upcoming Intel chipsets, GPUs will be limited to 8 lanes of data, rather than the 16 lanes supported through a specific Nvidia chip.
Nevertheless, hardware manufacturers certainly seems excited by the news. "Since NVIDIA introduced it back in 2004, SLI has become required equipment for any serious gaming platform" said Kelt Reeves, President of Falcon Northwest. "Clearly the combination of the Intel P55 chipset, Core i5 or i7 processor, and SLI will be the dominant recipe for any high-performance PC from this point forward."
Sure, that's good news for those who tend towards the Nvidia side of the gaming world, but what about ATI/AMD fans—and yes, there are still a few people out there who believe in the power of AMD chips. No word from AMD about where you can use your Crossfire cards, but you can certainly use Nvidia cards on systems built for AMD processors.
boards to hit the market.

SOURCE:www.extremetech.com

ASUS P7P55D DELUXE LYNNFIELD MOTHERBOARD

ASUS P7P55D Deluxe Lynnfield Motherboard previewOver the past weeks we already brought you several previews on P55 (Core i5) motherboards from partners like MSI and Gigabyte. Today we'll take a peek at ASUS's finest offering -- a P55 motherboard tagged P7P55D Deluxe. And one thing is going to be a fact, thisSo as you guys know Intel is slowly but steadily preparing to release the new mainstream Core i5/i7 series processors. The new processors are quite different from the original Core i7 Nehalem socket LGA 1366 processor, it's based on what Intel calls their Lynnfield architecture and as such the new processors will (unfortunately) come with a new socket design; Socket LGA 1156. will be such a nice motherboards series.The new upcoming processors will of course over time slowly replace the Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo series (actually these will be renamed to Core i3) of processors in the long run.. From what we can tell there should be three models Lynnfield processor on socket LGA 1156 released at launch, all are quad-core processors and based on the Lynnfield architecture, fabricated on a 45nm node. So with a new processor series based on a new package, you need a new chipset for the motherboard. That is P55 -- it supports both Lynnfield 45nm Nehalem family based quad-cores and IGP dual-core Nehalem codenamed based Clarkdale (32nm with native GPU) processors. Due to the fact that Lynnfield processors feature an integrated memory controller, like current Core i7 processors, and that they're outfitted with 16 lanes of embedded PCI Express connectivity, there's no need to pair the processors with a second chip (Southbridge). Instead, the processor will connect only to the P55 chip.To facilitate the new Lynnfield architecture processors Intel has been working on the P55 chipset, this chipset will replace P45.

SOURCE:www.guru3d.com

OCZ Behemoth game mouse

Hey all. Today we bring you a review on OCZ's latest gaming mouse, a mouse named Behemoth. When you look back at the history of hardware products, one thin red line that always returns is the usage of somehow ancient, religious, Greek dark or evil names for products.
OCZ also has this tendency here and there to do that and therefore I was keen to find out what the product name Behemoth really means. I mean Behemoth .. that's a whole lotta name for a mouse alright.
So I dug up some stuff here, Behemoth is a biblical creature mentioned in the Book of Job, 40:15-24. The word is most likely a plural form of behemah, meaning beast or large animal. It may be an example of pluralis excellentiae, a Hebrew method of expressing greatness by pluralizing a noun. It thus indicates that Behemoth is the largest and most powerful animal ever to exist.
Ooohwkaaay kids bed-time ! ... right then, welcome to a new gaming peripheral review here at Guru3D.com. It should be no surprise that today we'll be testing the all new OCZ Behemoth gaming mouse. This gaming mouse is packed with good features and has a great design. Very ergonomic, very well though through and very affordable as well.
The Behemoth has five key features. DPI switching, double lasers for double precision (well that's the theory at least), it is weight adjustable and it has a braided cloth USB cord, no sticky rubber thing. Next to that the mouse has a little memory which means you can save game profiles in there.
Next to being a well designed mouse with a lot of features, it stands above the rest of the gaming mice out there. Let's inspect and test this largest and most powerful animal of a mouse (heck it is called behemoth) ever to exist.

SOURCE:www.guru3d.com

smooth creation lanshark chassing

It may come as no surprise to our regular readers, but we editors at guru3d.com have attachments, attachments to hardware. But just as soon as we think we have recovered from our previous review, another box shows up in the mail. Ah, another from SmoothCreations to help guide us further along the path of hardware nirvana. Yes, Pandora in a box. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve taken a good, long, look at SmoothCreation’s LANShark. As its name would suggest, it’s a little box of power that you’d lug to a LAN party and proceed to gobble up the frags. Of course, the mind fills with catch-phrases, tag lines, cliches, and one-liners. The oppression of a fertile mind! I just got a text message from Cptn. Obvious, “It’s Shark Week at Guru3d.com…” That's a bit obvious, though.Or something obscure and old school like, “Knock, knock… it’s LANShark!”When I think of a good lead catch-phrase, I’ll update the article. Wait, how about: It’s Skull Week at guru3d.com! Bit obvious, innit?
In the meantime, let me take you on a little photo tour, a meet ‘n greet. Here we have the next installment of a SmoothCreations system, ladies and gents, meet the LANShark.
Read on to find out what's

SOURCE:www.guru3d.com

Toshiba mini NB205-N210

They say the best things come in pairs. When the colorful Toshiba mini NB205 launched (and subsequently nabbed our Editors' Choice in the netbook category), another more traditional-looking netbook launched along with it (though flying under the radar), one that deserves almost as much praise. The Toshiba mini NB205-N210 doesn't have the NB205's fancy colors and textures or its full size keyboard, but every other part and feature is as lovable. And at $70 less ($330) than the NB205, it should give bargain netbooks like the Acer Aspire One (D250-1165) and HP Mini 110 (1030us) some stiff competition.

SPEC DATA:

Price as Tested: $330.00 Direct
Type: General Purpose, Ultraportable, Value, Netbook
Operating System: MS Windows XP Home
Processor Name: Intel Atom N280
Processor Speed: 1.67 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
Weight: 2.9 lb
Screen Size: 10.1 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Storage Capacity: 160 GB
Networking Options: 802.11a/g
Primary Optical Drive: External

SOURCE:www.pcmag.com

Gateway NV5807u

Since being acquired by Acer, Gateway's main objective has been to undersell every other big name that distributes cheap laptops. And to its credit, the company has succeeded in putting out some of the most affordable laptops, even if most of the designs look eerily similar. The Gateway NV5807u ($600 street) is cheaper than comparable offerings from Dell, HP, and Toshiba. Unlike its competitors, though, there is no room for customization: The 15.6-inch widescreen, Intel processor, and 4GB of memory (among other common parts in budget laptops) are set in stone for this model. Still, these are the parts I'd recommend for any other brand's budget models, especially when money is tight around the house.

SPEC DATA:

Price as Tested: $600.00 Street
Type: General Purpose, Media, Value
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo T6500
Processor Speed: 2.1 GHz
RAM: 4 GB
Weight: 5.8 lb
Screen Size: 15.6 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Storage Capacity: 320 GB
Networking Options: 802.11n
Primary Optical Drive: DVD+R DL

SOURCE:www.pcmag.com

Lenovo ThinkStation S20

Power users need power. That's as simple as it gets. The Lenovo ThinkStation S20 ($3,665 direct) has the power to motor through your Digital Content Creation (DCC) tasks like manipulating digital photos and video, plus it also has stability and IT-friendly features that make it a better choice than simply repurposing a consumer box to run your business. It's not for everybody, and neither is the price, but it will be a boon for the professional, particularly the graphics professional that just can't go Mac, no matter what.

SPEC DATA:

Price as Tested: $3,665.00 Direct
Type: Workstation, Business
Processor Family: Intel Xeon
RAM: 4 GB
Storage Capacity: 500 GB
RAID: No
Graphics Card: nVidia Quadro FX 4800
Primary Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW

SOURCE:www.pcmag.com