Quad Core AMD processors appear on roadmap

RICKY sends me a few photo shots from HKEPC, my favourite HK website. The site is in Chinese, so you might want to use Google's Beta translator. Over here, you have photos of two nForce 570SLI motherboards from MSI and Gigabyte. Both boards seem to have a mini video card like HSF which means that the 570SLI chipset is quite hot. Both support AMD's AM2 and come with RAID5 IDE and six SATA 2 ports, twin GbE ports and HD Audio. There are also a few information about AMD's next gen quad cores with names like Deerhound, Zamora, Cadiz and Greyhound. Shared L2 and L3 cache make a big entry as well as HT3 and DDR3 - in two years time.

Digital Trends, formerly known as Designtechnica, reviews the Sony DCR-HC96. Like MP3 players which are rapidly morphing into Personal Media Players, entry level digital cameras are also taking some new functions onboard. The HC96 for example can take decent 3MP stills on tape; MiniDV ones. It also comes with a 2.7-inch wide LCD as well as a host of features like USB, Firewire and AV IOs, Carl Zeiss 10x lenses and flash. That's not all, it is also lightweight and comes with its own docking station. The amount of technology this baby packs and its affordable price makes it a real winner.

Trusted Reviews tests one of the great grand sons of the LCD monitor I am currently using. Yes, the Eizo Flexscan S2410W is a relative of the L680 that sits on my desktop. The S2410W is unsurprisingly a 24-inch monitor, a widescreen model that retails for just over a grand. You get a couple of USB ports, two DVI-I ports and a poor cable management system. But visual quality is definitely worth the price. Breathtaking and a 1000:1 contrast ratio that is no marketing hype at all.

Hexus reviews the Evesham Technology V32EMRO-ZE3 32-inch LCD TV. It is an entry level model but comes with HDMI compatibility, three years warranty and delivery as well as an affordable price of £749. It comes with a decent set of IOs and quality wise, the screen is right up there with the top average batch rather than at the bottom end. Reasonable buy - even at this price - but definitely not a great buy.

Extremetech bites the bullet and gets the S3 Chrome S27 to the test. The third player in the video market segment is relatively cheaper than the rest of the competition. On paper at least, the S27 is worth the dollar but whether it is competitive in real life is something else. As the reviewer puts it, there is no reason why you should buy second best. The S27 price fell dramatically in the last few days but still, with low scores due to bugs and feature deficiencies, there is little to like about the card. Such a shame; S3 next gen card is supposed to be a DX10 part. Let's wait and see. Neoseeker tests the Pentium D 930 which is a 65nm part Dual core model from Intel. With a 800MHz FSB and twin 3GHZ cores, the P D 930 is a powerful competitor to AMD's mid range. It also comes with Virtualization technology, with 2MB L2 per core and with support for EM64T. At$365, it is equivalent in price to a X2 4000+ - if the later existed. William overclocked it to 4.125GHz using stock Vcore and stock Heatsink fan, one can expect it to reach 4.5GHz given the means - a full 50% overclocking. Pure, unadulterated enthusiast satisfaction as he puts it. µ