Mod an X1800GTO to an X1800XL easily

CHINESE website HKEPC shows us how to mod a X1800GTO to a X1800XL by enabling the 16 pipelines. a HIS card was used. You can download the appropriate mod document and the mod bios. Of course, everything you will do to your machine will be at your own risk. The specialist of breaking hardware reviews also has some news about the 939SLI32-eSATA2 motherboard from Asrock - with pictures and SIS's series of chipset, all in its forum.

Meanwhile Techgage tests the Nikon Coolpix L1 6.2MP digital camera. Digital cameras are no longer what they used to be. What you do get is an entry level digital camera with a 10MB internal memory - nice when your iPod has more than 4GB. It also has a 2.5-inch LCD display and a 5x optical zoom which can be coupled with a 4x digital one. Apart from that not much to say except perhaps that it is very small, is very much power hungry - watch how quickly your rechargeable batteries will be eaten away but it did produce good photos.

Hardwaresecrets tests the XG Duro 900 power supply unit. A huge 900w PSU with four independent 12v rails, yes ladies and gentlemen, four rails. Enough power to feed your Quad SLI crave. It is definitely now beautiful, but who cares. It has two auxiliary PCI express power connectors and quite a few cables. It is one of the rare PSU's that can actually deliver those 900w. Remember that's more than power than in some heaters. Actually XG is a branch of MGE and the reviewer wonders why it is so. Still a good deal at $150.

Dell's 37-inch monitor is expensive, mind you. That's not usual from Dell. But anyway, you get quality that you can expect from the largest computer manufacturer out there. The W3706 offers top notch HD picture quality, abundant connectivity, beautiful aesthetics, excellent design and detachable speakers. At more than one million pixels - it will be enough even for those envisaging to switch to a dual use monitor. Its WXGA resolution of 1366 x 768 will easily allow you to get two A4 sheets side by side. It might not be as good as a plasma screen, but who cares really.

Trustedreviews has a roundup of several Nvidia 7900GT cards out there in the UK. They are 24 pipeline beasts, twice the X1800GTO, but run only at 450/1320MHz core/mem speeds. Asus, XFX, BFG, EVGA and Leadtek models are considered. SLI is not really worth it in this case - a 790GTX is still faster when it counts the most. It overclocks really well, is a single format board and has two DVI there. The five cards reviewed were almost identical to each other except for the design on the HSF. Which one to go for? Probably the cheapest one.

Last but not least, the Intel Pentium 965 Extreme Edition gets its hour of honour at Legitreviews. Based on the 65nm process, it comes with 4MB cache, Intel Virtualisation Technology, a 1066MHz FSB and a whopping 3.73GHz speed. A very big processor in every sense. It actually shares quite a few features with server processors and I wonder how it would perform. Anyway, The processor was rock steady at 4.8GHz, given an increase in processor multiplier combined with a small voltage increase. µ