New ULI chipset gathers momentum

Firingsquad has just completed a huge dissertation like series of articles that they call the Definite System Building guide where they build systems based on the most advanced and best value for money components currently available. Dual Core AMD Opterons, Athlon X2 4200+ etc. Part one is the Ultimate Gaming $4000 desktop, part two, the Ultimate $9000 workstation, http://firingsquad.com/hardware/2005_eternal_battle_day3/Part III sees the implementation of some cost cutting measures where they prove that quality of power is more important than the amount of it. As a proof, they undervolt their FX57 and test some PSUs.

They show us how to build some high performance systems without spending that much money. The fourth episode sees a Dual Opteron 252 go against an Athlon X2 4200+ and a FX57.

The last one delves into high definition HTPC, covering HDTV resolutions - 1920x1080i with the help of the 7800GTX. The amount of information contained in those articles is simply phenomenal - 30,000 words in all.

The new ULI Athlon chipset is starting to generate a buzz right now. Tbreak reviews a reference board with the M1695 paired with the M1567 to form a platform called the TGI or triple graphics interface, allowing simultaneous support for PCIe, AGP and PCI graphics card. Not only did the reference board perform flawlessly but it was on par with the nForce 4 and K8T890 motherboards which means that the final version will probably be even better. ULI is set to rule the entry level market if they execute well. Abbas also reviews the OCZ Titanium series of DDR2 memory. Not much of an improvement on the OCZ standard memory module but the level of service OCZ offers by itself might justify the premium.

Lesnumeriques.com, a French website reviews 11 video projectors from Epson, Acer, Canon, Hitachi, HP, Nec, Toshiba, Viewsonic and Infocus. Projectors are a poor man's widescreen. With prices starting at around £400, they provide with at least four times the size of a plasma screen for half the cost. Unfortunately, other factors have to be accounted for and lesnumeriques gives you some clues on how to choose your projector. µ