AMD Opteron E stepping tested

Over at Clubic, there is an interview with Richard Brown, VIA's VP marketing. It is in French, so you might need your translator. An uncannily sincere piece of stuff, miles away from the usual stance associated with PR release. Amongst other things, he does acknowledge that VIA cannot compete on mid-range, high-end graphics, that they have had some difficulties in the Pentium IV range, that the P4-M should never have come out etc.

Want to get the latest Windows XP free for one year, why not try Windows XP Pro 64 which you can obtain direct from Microsoft. Xbitlabs test the Release Candidate version of Windows XP Professional X64 which compares the performance of AMD and Intel processors in a mixture of application benchmarks. Also the Zen Micro, one of the more serious competitors to the iPod makes it to their labs. Available in a wide range of colours, it will certainly snatch some marketshare

Firing Squad ponders on the ECS KN1 Extreme and compares it to the mythical ECS K7S5A. Apart from getting the Bull's Eye award from that side, it has also seriously impressed them even if it is the lowest priced nForce 4 Ultra available. A serious contender for the motherboard of the year award.

UK Website IT review tests the HP Photosmart 2610, one of the new AIO's from the new new HP. As yu would expect, the price of running it high and so is the print quality. There is also a colour LCD display and some memory card slot which highlight its photographic features as well.

HKEPC holds a product that will probably become a winner in some months. The PT880Pro not only supports DDR for the Intel platform but most importantly, it allows AGP and PCI cards to be used simultaneously, even though not like SLI.

Spodeabode tries the batterylife activator pad and gets to hate it copiously. Allan Nielsen tested this German product which was supposed to improve battery life noticeably but ended up somewhere in SA's bin. µ

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