HardOCP

"In its typical fashion, ASUS’ latest Republic of Gamers branded motherboard looks to dominate the P45 market. The Maximus II Formula board performs as well as it looks, and seems to be shaping up to give the other Intel boards a run for their money. Did we mention it is themed in blood red and black? Our favorite.

... The ASUS Maximus II Formula motherboard is the latest release in their premium branded Republic of Gamers product line. The board is designed around the Intel P45 chipset, supporting the following technologies: all current Intel LGA 775 processors, DDR2 memory operating in Dual Channel mode up to 1066MHz officially, and dual card CrossFireX graphics mode using matched ATI graphics cards. ASUS created the Maximus II Formula board as a feature complete solution, with the board itself requiring a bare minimum of components to be made operational: an Intel LGA 775 processor, DDR2 memory, a video card, drives, and a PSU."

LINK

BBC

"Adult prisoners in England and Wales are to be banned by the Prison Service from playing computer games rated 18. Good behaviour will allow offenders to play other games, and those at risk of suicide will be also given access.

However, eligible inmates would have to buy consoles themselves as the new rules ban prisons from buying games or consoles with immediate effect. The Prison Reform Trust said games were "no substitute for purposeful activity like work or education classes". It said these were being cut back as a result of prison overcrowding.

Last year the government spent more than £10,000 on 80 PlayStations and 15 Xboxes for young offender institutions. All prisons have been told to remove 18-rated games - not suitable for people aged under 18 - by 30 September."

LINK

Digitimes

"Originally scheduled to launch in November or December this year, Intel's Nehalem-based Bloomfield processors will now launch in September along with X58 chipsets, sources at motherboard makers have revealed.

However, the sources pointed out that CPUs and motherboards will not officially appear in the channel until early October.

Since Bloomfield CPUs are not socket compatible with previous Intel platforms, the accelerated launch is not expected to cause competition between the company's own products, although the same cannot be said for AMD's scheduled AM3-based CPU launch, noted the sources."

LINK

Dailytech

Today HP announced that it is folding the Voodoo brand into its HP line. HP says that it will maintain Voodoo as a brand name. That statement frightens some Voodoo enthusiasts who fear that the Voodoo name will be just that -- a name slapped onto anything HP wants to market for more money to the gaming crowd.

PC World quotes HP spokeswoman Ann Finnie saying, “It is just the next step of integration into the business units that deliver Compaq Presario and [HP] Pavilion.” The good part about the folding of Voodoo completely into HP is that the gaming systems would be easier to get at retail locations and with the significantly larger staff of HP systems would be faster to build and deliver.

Voodoo’s Rahul Sood said in a blog post, “Ultimately it means that Voodoo and Voodoo-influenced products will be easier to buy, faster to get, they will feature local service, and they will have the full power of HP’s marketing and sales channel behind them. The bottom line is we have ignited the brand and sparked big excitement; so we are now integrating our organizations to fuel our growth.”

LINK

Digitimes

"With falling demand for entry-level discrete graphics cards, and even mid-range cards in some cases, due to improvements in motherboard IGP performance, several graphics card makers have taken steps to enter the motherboard market. The makers who have started to launch motherboard products include PowerColor (Tul), XFX, Sapphire, BFG, Gainward, Inno3D, Galaxy and Zotac.

Most of the graphics card makers have outsourced their motherboard manufacturing to OEMs in a bid to lower costs. China-based motherboard OEM J&W Technology has gained the most orders, along with Palit and Jetway, according to industry sources.

However, channel vendors pointed out that first-tier motherboard makers dominate the mid-range and high-end markets, leaving these makers to fight it out for slim profits in the entry-level segment."

LINK

CPU3D Announcement: Server Maintenance

I apologise for the downtime ... this was due to some server upgrades and maintenance. Well, I'm glad it's back to normal ... there might still be some glitches. Please report any problems to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Also please visit our forums for more news and announcements ... http://www.cpu3d.com/forum

TweakTown

"While the new drivers don’t offer massive performance gains or anything like that, there are a number of nice little bumps on offer here today. With the fixes implemented in the driver, they’re a good upgrade for most users. People who will be particular happy, however, are mid-range HD 3650 users who want an extra few FPS here and there.

There’s no doubt that the AMD guys are extremely busy at the moment with the HD 4800 series of cards, but with the X2 just around the corner, hopefully it begins to calm down a little bit and the team can get stuck into the drivers and try and get us some more performance from the new cards."

LINK

CPU3D Review: Samsung SyncMaster 245B LCD Monitor

Widescreen LCD monitors are now pretty much standard nowadays, but what size is a good size? The Samsung SyncMaster 245B LCD Monitor boasts a massive 24" inch screen, a maximum resolution of 1920x1200, detachable stereo speakers, response time of 5ms, supports HDCP and has a contrast ratio of 1000:1, with a brightness level of 400cd/m².

"... With excellent image quality, a high resolution and a great price, the SyncMaster 245B is a great choice for anyone who wants a large monitor for their PC. "

Read the rest of the review ... HERE.

See, not everyone gets their own way ... this couldn't be more true for CS Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia. BTW ... anyone knows who owns www.winston.com ?

BBC

"An Edinburgh couple have lost a battle with the estate of Chronicles of Narnia author CS Lewis over a web domain name. Richard Saville-Smith paid £70 for the name www.narnia.mobi so his son Comrie, 11, who is a CS Lewis fan, could use it for his e-mail address.

But the company which owns the rights to the late author's work lodged a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization. It ruled that the domain name should be transferred to C.S. Lewis (Pte) Ltd. "

LINK

Is this true or false? Google buying Digg ... boy, these Google guys are buying anything and everything

CNet

"Social-news site Digg.com, a perpetual target of acquisition rumors, is in "final negotiations" to sell itself to Google for $200 million, according to a TechCrunch report Tuesday that cited multiple sources.

Google has been in talks to bring Digg into the Google News group, but it could be a few weeks before the deal closes, if it closes, according to the report.

Representatives for Google and Digg did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Usually a "no comment" or the like is the response to questions about rumored acquisition negotiations. However, that was not the case in March--when the Digg takeover rumor mill was in full swing.

Rumors back in March that the social news site might be purchased by Google, Microsoft, or a major media company had whipped a sizable number of Digg users into a panic. Digg CEO Jay Adelson, perhaps in an effort to assuage those fears of having a corporate owner, posted a blog that month that seemed to go a little above and beyond the call to deny the rumors. "

LINK

According to SanDisk ... Vista doesn't like SSDs. In fact, the performance was very poor, and it seems that Vista was not optimized for flash memory solid state disk. Excuses or fact?

Dailytech