Nvidia's Conroe chipset on its way

BJORN3D HAS a quick chat with three NVIDIA people and the cleaned transcript is up - the original one was probably quite filthy. Information that can be gathered: The 570 series chipset will support Quad SLI; overclocking support in the chipset has been well received; Conroe Nvidia Chipsets are on their way; the Tritium program does not exist and the Inq is wrong. A long list of rumours debunked and/or confirmed by those present.

GamePC reports on the AOpen i945GTm-VHL 945GT-based motherboard. It is sold under MODT banner - mobile on Desktop. Aopen has earned a very coveted place in the Pentium M/Core Duo segment, being the equivalent of DFI for the mainstream. The i945GTm-VHL motherboard is a mATX model with DVI support, Firewire, GbE, S-Video, PCI express graphic slots and HD Audio. While it is not overclocker friendly, it seems to have up the ante by providing with an even more power efficient platform. GamePC compares it to another Aopen Core Duo compatible mobo and one Asus model.

PCStats tests the Asus EAX1600XT Silent/TVD/256M/A videocard. Like Foxconn, Asus wants to extend long names nomenclature to all its products it seems. The model reviewed comes with a CD wallet, a breakout box and a silently cooled solution based on heat pipes. You get VIVO, DVI and D Sub as connectors. It ain't that bad, especially at that price. It comes with SM 3.0 and ATI Crossfire compatibility plus it is relatively good at overclocking, although you need additional cooling which in turn defeats the purpose of having a silent card in the first place.

Techreport compares five different 7900 video card models, from Asus, BFG, Biostar - newcomer - and XFX. The XFX and the Biostar are relegated to the last places as they are either too expensive or not readily available. BFG gives a lifetime warranty and the card is overclocked by default and it does have a nice pricetag. The Asus model is not bad as well depending on your budget.

French website X86 secret tests the Via C7/Luke/NanoBGA processor. Do not expect any surprising twist. The C7 is still roughly what you would expect a Pentium III to be. Clocked at speeds between 1.5GHz and 2GHz, its motherboard is just 12x12cm, the C7 is aiming squarely at the Geode GX or a ULV Pentium model. It is not readily available though, which is a big thumbs down. However, the market is starting to discover that raw performance is not everything, for the better or the worse.

BIOSmagazine reviews the Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard, one that sports the new nForce 590 SLI MCP chipset and dual Channel DDR2 memory - yummy indeed. Also on the spec sheet are SLI compatibility, a beefed-up heat pipe thermal solution - Charlie ain't happy with that as well as marchitectures like FirstPacket, Mediashield and LinkBoosting. Asus products rarely come on their own and this one comes with an array microphone, a connector kit, a wireless antenna and a few software. µ