Core2 Extreme X6800 tested against FX62 and PEE 965

HKEPC compares the Core 2 Extreme X6800, the FX62 and the PEE 965 processors. It is in Chinese, use Google to translate it if you want. Anyway, the slides are in English and well documented. From Intel's Intelligent Power Capability to the Advanced Smart Cache, you will get to know more about the next generation Intel processor. How far does the Core Extreme goes in beating both the AMD processor and the Intel PEE 965? See the review for yourself. The core overclocks to 3.6GHz.

Virtual Hideout tests the Asus EAX1300 Pro video card. It is an entry level card with a nice heat sink fan, a DVI and a D-Sub port plus 256MB memory running at 800MHz, with a 600MHz core. While you can't expect this one to be a gamer's card, it does it job pretty well bearing in mind that it shares most of the functionality of the X1800 except for the number of pipelines and the speed. Anyway, if you are a gamer, look elsewhere.

Hardwaresecrets reviews the ECS C19-A SLI motherboard. It is a nice socket 775 motherboard with a nForce4 SLI XE chipset which is compatible with the Pentium D 820 processor and offers HD Audio, Firewire, SATA2, NCQ and GbE. The board gets compared to a number of other SLI and non SLI Intel boards. The ECS board performs remarkably well, just short of the DFI Lanparty board. With a 16x multiplier, it reached 4GHz with a 3.2GHz processor.

The Windows Vista2 Preview is tested at Anandtech. Microsoft is apparently looking to make Vista itself the star of the show rather to use it to promote other technologies like USB with Windows 98. Anandtech has an interesting pointwise comparison of Vista vs Tiger, XP and Windows Vista x64. Worryingly, it seems that Vista x64 is not reedy as testers had significantly more issues with x64.

Hothardware reviews the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB Hard disk drive. It is the largest hard disk drive currently available and easily the fastest model around - with the exception of the WD Raptor family. Seagate has been on a roll since acquiring Maxtor. With four platters, SATA2 compatibility, 16MB cache and five year warranty, there's not much that the competition can do as Seagate steams forward to the 1TB barrier.

Tweaktown tests the Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 motherboard. Armed with a nForce 590 MCP, it runs SLI in x16 mode, has eight SATA2 ports, two GbE LAN, HD Audio and the layout that you might expect from a top fo the range card. Overclocking is good but not as good as the A8R32 for example. The board will be on sale pretty soon but you can expect it to cost quite a bit.