Creative Cooler Challenge Encourages Community to Design Next Generation Coolers With $5000 in Cash and Prizes!

July 1^st , Daejeon, Korea: In an effort to empower the budding creative minds within the enthusiast community, ZEROtherm is taking an unprecedented measure to help aide the development of THE next generation CPU and VGA coolers.  Sponsoring the first ever “Creative Cooler Challenge”, ZEROtherm is determined to tap into the unharnessed dreams of the hardware tweaker and help those dreams become a reality.

ZEROtherm understands that hidden inside the mind of the enthusiast there lays the raw untapped desire to create the next monumental advancement in performance enhancing hardware.  A need to push hardware beyond its limits resonates at the core of the hardcore!  Amidst the countless mathematical equations processed while attempting to reverse engineer various software and hardware constraints in the pursuit of tweaking ones PC, there erupts  a singular passion and solution to break the performance barrier… a thermal solution!  The time has come to unleash the creativity within and take a shot at making your mark as a driving contributor to the overclocking community!

http://www.zerotherm.net/eng/support/board_view.asp?pdb=newnevent&id=170

http://art.zerotherm.net

London—July 2008—Akasa announced today they are shipping the new OMEGA – professional PC case designed for pro-gaming systems and high performance work stations.

Omega’s distinctive design was created by Akasa’s Hong Kong based industrial design team. This case has been developed from our award winning chassis’s, Mirage and Eclipse.

Akasa is targeting the case at the gaming market and also those who want top performance with thermal efficiency and require low noise levels from the chassis.  Omega is also optimised for watercooling

The Omega case has a solid aluminium front panel with full height mesh ventilation,  a side panel mesh window with option for 2 x 12cm fans for extreme VGA cooling, a top panel mesh window provides a watercooling facility for bay fitting radiators and fixings for 2 x 12cm fans.

A total of six 12cm fans can be installed

The HD I/O side mounted ports include e-SATA and mobo connected IEEE 1394 for full connectivity.

Omega is high engineered for those who need a solid aluminiun case where all panels are thumb screw removable, great for PC enthusiasts who want easy all round access including the slide out stainless steel motherboard tray

Mirage was described as “the coolest case ever” Omega just got cooler.

Product code: AK-BKCSE-05

Receiving movies in the mail has rapidly gained popularity over the last few years. Once seemingly impossible, movie fans now make a list of movies they want to see and get them in the mail once those movies become available. It seems so long ago that I trekked to the store and dealt with rain checks, annoying cashiers, and an endless supply of problem customers. Now, this convenience is available for gamers. The question is: Is Gamefly worth the cost and the wait time for the average gamer?

Selecting and receiving games you want to play without leaving the comfort of your own home has long been every gamers wet dream. What? they say, I dont have to put down my pint of Cherry Garcia to make a trip to the local gaming or video rental store? Yes, we now can continue eating our ice cream while opening todays mail and pop in our newly arrived, highly anticipated, shiny gaming title.

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1212

…”At the end of June, in Spain, we were introduced to a new series
of 48xx graphics cards from ATI. We saw then only RV770PRO (4850) but at
this moment 4870 (RV770XT) is also available. Even though our sources from
AMD didn’t unveil why 4870 wasn’t shown on launching, we assume that some
problems with quantities of available GDDR5 memory occurred. Considering
that 4850 uses GDDR3 memory, it is no surprise that many retailers had them
on stock. ATI 4870 will be sold, in beginning, exclusively with GDDR5 memory
(this is the first graphics card that uses this memory) but AMD leaves a
possibility that some innovative partner might launch later version that
uses GDDR3 memory.”…

If you are interested to read some more, we present you link:

http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Graphics-cards/ATI-48xx-Architecture.html

Title:
ATI 48xx Architecture @ InsideHW

InsideHW.com has posted review graphics card Sapphire HD 4850. You can
read a clip from review:

…”It’s rare occasion to have on test, on the same month, new
generation products from two big rivals (nVIDIA and ATI). This is really
good news because ATI had some serious delays with R600 and that is one of
reasons why it was so indifferently received on market. ATI realized that
now must roll up its sleeves to catch up nVIDIA, because at that point
seemed that nVIDIA unreachably moved away.”…

If you are interested to read some more, we present you link:
http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Graphics-cards/Sapphire-HD-4850.html

Title:
Sapphire HD 4850 @ InsideHW

I4U NEWS published a review of the PNY GTX 260 Video Card.

Quote from the review:
“Today we are checking out the PNY GTX 260 video card. The GTX 260 is the lower performing of the pair of GTX 200 series GPUs recently announced. The GTX 260 is about $100 cheaper than its GTX 280 brother.

In the end the performance of the PNY GTX 260 was good. The price for the card is a bit high at $449.99 when compared to new offerings from AMD. The card performs well and I suspect over time the price will come down and make it more attractive.”

Full Review:
http://www.i4u.com/full-review-450.html

Homepage Link:
http://www.i4u.com

NEW CONTENT (Memory) - OCZ Flex-II PC2-9200 2GB Memory Kit

QUOTE: “OCZ is by far one of the biggest supporters of overclockers out there; this has been evident by bringing out memory that has a water jacket built into it, allowing extreme cooling users to simply pump some H20 into it and cool it down better than that of ordinary air cooling.

Today we have the newest incarnation of the Flex memory from OCZ with their own built in water jackets. The Flex-II PC2-9200 Kit comprises OCZ’s highest clocked DDR2 memory modules; how will they perform? - Let’s have a bit of a gander and see.”

For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1494/ocz_flex_ii_pc2_9200_2gb_memory_kit/index.html

Best Regards,

The TweakTown Team
http://www.tweaktown.com

TITLE: Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews

DESCRIPTION: Sapphire has always offered the most influential ATI graphics products available, and the new Radeon HD 4850 is no different.  Although it still uses GDDR3 clocked at 993 (1986 MHz DDR), unlike the 4870 version that is decked out with GDDR5, the Sapphire 100242L model offers 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) on its 625 MHz 800-core RV770 GPU.  Benchmark Reviews tests the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 graphics card against the closest competition, and even compare CrossFireX performance in this performance review.

ARTICLE URL: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=192&Itemid=1

We have just posted up a review of the Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W PSU.  This PSU is a powerhouse that offers up 4 +12v rails for a total of 112Amps.  It translates to much more that 1200W and I believe that Thermaltake has underestimated (on purpose) this PSU.  It can handle some of today’s most extreme systems and even manages to power a high-end cooler as well.  Take a look as we put it to the test in a power hungry beast that draws well over 800W.

Title: Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W PSU
URL: http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5849&Itemid=40

Quote:
The Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W PSU is a power house.  This PSU comes equipped with four +12v rails and supports 6 PCIe devices - 3x 6-pin and 3x 8-pin.  It is mostly modular and features a nice large fan that provides very good cooling to this unit under normal circumstances.  It is quite solid and is by far the most solid PSU we’ve ever seen - except for that darn 12v2 rail.

Visiontek ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card Review

Author: Benjamin Sun Date: 07-03-2008

ATI has a definite winner here as the card comes close to the GTX280 in one situation and beats the previous generation HD3870 throughout the tests. Apparently the HD4870 comes close to the performance of a GTX260 in almost every case, but for $100 less making it a real winner. Competition has been lacking in the graphics market since the launch of the 8800GTX two years ago, but ATI is back with a vengeance offering lower power draw, great performance and features for a lower price point than the competition at the same performance segment. The big gun of the ATI lineup, the HD4870X2 is due in August and should outperform any GTX280 across the board for lower prices.

Review Link: http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/hardware/1790_1.html

10,000 BC DVD Review & Podcast @ Ascully.com

Quote

“I had no expectations of 10,000 BC. I did have Apocalypto in my mind, which was excellent. I love to look back at that time in human history before the assholes of civilization decided to start ripping the world apart with their commerce and desire for gold.”

Article Link - http://www.ascully.com/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=774

Podcast Link - http://www.ascully.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=163

Article Title - 10,000 BC DVD Review & Podcast @ Ascully.com

Title: Crucial Ballistix 1GBx2 PC3-16000 at Overclockers Online
Link: http://www.overclockersonline.net/index.php?page=articles&num=1821
Quote: Crucial once again knocks socks off and does it in style. The
Ballistix line of memory has always been known to impress and rightfully
they should. But what this kit of memory has done on the 790i test
motherboard is just above and beyond what our expectations were…and our
expectations were certainly a little bit lofty coming in. Needless to say,
we weren’t expecting to be able to benchmark at 1100MHz+ and certainly not
at the little amount of voltage that was required to do so. Simply put,
this memory out ran the motherboard and it wasn’t even a close race.

Title: Shadowgrounds Survivor Review @ FusionMods.Net

Link: http://www.fusionmods.net/index.php?theCase=viewThread&threadID=1574

Quote: “Once in a while a game will come along where its story doesn\'t matter and its graphics are not jaw dropping but its gameplay is solid and very fun.  Shadowgrounds Survivor is that game.”

Title:
Point of View GeForce GTX 260 Assassins Creed Edition

Link:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Point_Of_View/GeForce_GTX_260

Brief:
At this time NVIDIA’s new GTX 260 graphics cards are positioned to be quite a bit more expensive than ATI’s similar performing HD 4870. However, NVIDIA includes support for CUDA and PhysX. We also saw amazing overclocking potential on our GTX 260 card, even surpassing the $200 more expensive GTX 280.

Digit-Life Review: AMD 780G/780V/740G Integrated Socket AM2+ Chipsets

Excerpt:
“While we have already examined a few motherboards on AMD 780G, some performance matters were not covered. For example, operation in the Hybrid CrossFire mode and decoding of HD video. To be more exact, they were waiting in the wings for a traditional “personal” review of the chipset. Now we finally publish it.”

Article: http://www.digit-life.com/articles3/mainboard/amd-780-740-chipsets-p1.html

Title: Celeron, Pentium Dual Core and Athlon X2: Which One is the Best USD 70 CPU?
Link: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/577
Category: Reviews

Summary:
A round-up review comparing the performance of Celeron E1400, Pentium Dual Core E2180 and Athlon X2 4600+. Which one is the fastest USD 70 CPU? Check it out!

Here is a snippet:
“Today we put together a review comparing the performance of entry-level CPUs on the USD 70 price range: Celeron E1400 (dual-core 2 GHz), Pentium Dual Core E2160 (1.8 GHz), Pentium Dual Core E2180 (2 GHz) and Athlon X2 4600+ (2.4 GHz). With this review we wanted to answer a simply question: which one is the best USD 70 CPU today? We also included on this round-up a Core 2 Duo E4400 (2 GHz). We know that this CPU isn’t on this price range (and not even sold in the US anymore), but we were curious to compare a Celeron, a Pentium Dual Core and a Core 2 Duo all running under the same clock rate (2 GHz in our case) to see what is the performance difference between these Intel CPUs. Which CPU is the winner? Read on!”

Quote: “Double click to edit”

Link: http://www.overclock3d.net/articles.php?/misc_content/msi_european_overclocking_challenge_2008_with_overclock3d/1

Title: XTracPads Micro @ Tech-Reviews.co.uk

Briefing: XTracPads are known for their extremely good quality mouse surfaces such as the Ripper and FatPad. Today we have another pad to join the family in the form of the XTracPads Micro – a mat designed for notebook users. Does this pad live up to the standards of other mats from XTracPads? Read on to find out…

Link: http://tech-reviews.co.uk/reviews/xtracpads-micro/

“MSI’s P45 Neo3 is a good value motherboard if you’re looking to go green. It’s not suited to high-end gamers though, due to its lack of nVidia SLI support, and there’s no WLAN or Bluetooth chipsets. Some may also need a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) controller. There isn’t an onboard speaker for diagnostics, either. But MSI put many new technologies into its P45 series to improve the working of GreenPower, which improve temperatures, overclocking and stability. And with features such as active phase switching, enabling phase switching for the memory and chipset, as well as the PWM, the P45 Neo3 should cater for demanding users. Nvidia’s über-high-end nForce 790i Ultra SLI still rules the roost for ultimate performance, but the P45 Neo3 is a reasonable choice if you’re building a solid all-rounder on a budget. While the motherboard is catered to the budget user, its two-phase power supply for the chipset gives it better overclockability compared to the P45 Neo and there are still plenty of storage ports to cater to the enthusiast.”

http://www.biosmagazine.co.uk/rev.php?id=770

Title: DeathStarChris Does it Again! @ FusionMods.Net

Link: http://fusionmods.net/index.php?theCase=viewThread&threadID=1572

Quote: “DeathStarChris has always been an amazing member of FusionMods and we wanted to really send him some proper congrats on his latest victory over at ModShop.net. This one\’s already been a cover feature, and we won\’t be suprised if it makes it into the next Rig of the Month either.

CPU3D Review: Palit Geforce 9800 GTX (GDDR3)

A flurry of video cards have been released in the last few weeks. A mind boggling assortment ranging from the 9800GTX+ to GTX260, GTX280, and ATI’s new 4800 series. However, the card our CPU3D review team will be looking at the Geforce 9800GTX from PALiT multimedia. It’s the slightly older variant of the 9800GTX+. We put this card through its paces with some graphic intensive DX10 games.

“…it seems we have a new value SLI champ. The PALiT 9800GTX can still be a very attractive upgrade option to some users. “

Read the rest of the review … http://www.cpu3d.com/content/view/5306/53/

Title:

ASUS Lion Square CPU Cooler @ BRnR

Link:

http://www.barrys-rigs-n-reviews.com/reviews/2008/hardware/lionsquare/1.htm

Quote:

“A famous general once led his armies to defeat a group of strong enemies after an invasion. The shields that were equipped by the armies were carved with a lion-tattoo and the swords were placed through lion’s mouth. Later generations believe that this lion-tattoo symbolizes Strength, Courage, and Good Fortune.” So goes the story behind the ASUS Lion Square CPU Cooler. Can its performance match the greatness of the legend? Read on to find out…

Title: ATI Radeon HD 4870 On Linux @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12558
Summary: “A week ago we looked at the brand-new ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card under Linux. This graphics card launch was unlike any in ATI’s history where with the introduction of a brand new product generation, Linux users were greeted by same-day Linux support — both through their proprietary fglrx driver and with the open-source xf86-video-ati driver. In addition, some of the board partners are opting to put Tux on their product packaging and shipping the Linux drivers on their product CDs. As we had also exclusively shared, AMD will soon be approaching a feature parity between the Windows and Linux drivers. Today we’re publishing our complete review of the new ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB as well as delivering additional benchmarks from the Radeon HD 4850 under Linux, of course.”

Title: Vizo SleetDDR Ram Coolers Review @ FusionMods.Net

Link: http://www.fusionmods.net/index.php?theCase=viewThread&threadID=1573

Quote: “The Ram Coolers are easy to install, look great, and the performance makes them more than worth the money.”