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What you may expect from Phenom x4 and Yorkfield

From the final result, Phenom only lose QX6850 about 5.5%. But the CPU Score is losing 9.11% . If the rival change to QX9650, the gap will even bigger. If we compare to other subitem, that dual core E6850 will boost Graphic system better than Phenom X4. Comparing to Phenom X4 and E6850, All the advantage score are coming from the CPU score. Phenom X4 does bad in HDR and SM subitem tests.

Click for more on NextGen VS. CurrentGen CPU: 3DMark06 »

It’s the era of the terabyte. Which drive offers better performance and value?

That era really launched back in May when Hitachi delivered its 7K1000 terabyte hard drive. However, the 7K1000 was a five platter, ten head device, while Western Digital and Seagate ship four platter, four head devices. That’s right: The Western Digital WD10EACS and Seagate 7200.1 offer a cool 250GB per platter. That’s a lot of bits in a small area. Seagate’s take on a terabyte drive is a more traditional design, while Western Digital plays the green card. Which drive offers better performance and value?

Click for more on Terabyte Hard Drives Show Stellar Performance »

Tests show some clear benefits–but other results were inconclusive.

When they were introduced a couple of years ago, hybrid hard drives seemed enticing. Pairing a standard hard drive with a flash component sounded like a good way to deliver on the theoretical performance boosts that flash can offer while still providing the long-standing price, capacity, and performance benefits of hard disks.

We looked at Seagate’s Momentus 5400 PSD drive, announced today, and Samsung’s SpinPoint MH80 drive, released this summer. Both models are 2.5-inch, 160GB notebook drives with 256MB of nonvolatile flash memory cache on board. The hard-drive industry concentrated on introducing the new technology in laptop drives because notebooks would be more likely to reap the benefits that hybrid tech promises, including faster boot time and power savings.

Click for more on Tested: New Hybrid Hard Drives From Samsung and Seagate »

As long as competition stays reasonably tight, though, the real winner isn’t going to be Intel or AMD: it’s going to be the end-users.

Both AMD and Intel have enough horsepower with their integrated graphics solutions to drive Windows Vista’s Aero interface, so if you’re not going to be gaming then either integrated graphics solutions is more than enough. Windows and animations did seem to render more smoothly on the Intel platform but we’re not sure if that’s a driver, GPU, or CPU advantage.

Click for more on Midrange CPU Roundup: It’s Time to Buy »

ATI adds value priced HD 2900 PRO 512MB and 1GB graphics cards to lineup, same core as 2900XT but a lower clock.

The first of the HD 2900 PRO cards features 512MB GDDR3 and a 9-inch fansink. The card will include two DVI-I to VGA adapters, one component HDTV adapter, an ATI DVI to HDMI adapter, and one 9-pin VIVO adapter and a CrossFire bridge interconnect.  AMD claims this card will hit store shelves at $249.

Click for more on ATI Radeon HD 2900 PRO Graphics Cards: Announced and Reviewed »

A quick summary of the EOS 40D reviews.

It takes a while to put a camera like Canon’s EOS 40D fully through its paces, but a few brave souls have blazed through the feature set, menus, ISOs and megapixels afforded to them by the new camera in time to get reviews up mere weeks after launch. Of course, the flashiest feature here is Live View, but the 40D is no one trick pony: unlike the minimal 20D to 30D upgrade, the 40D is all-new and packed with enhancements. Who knows if this’ll be enough for Canon to get Nikon of its turf, but we’ll let you read the mountains of text, peep the comparison shots and draw your own conclusions.

Click for more on Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup »

Not everyone’s a gamer. When you see ATI or Nvidia release chips for cards that will cost upwards of $600, quite a few people simply shake their heads and wonder what the hell those companies are thinking. Aren’t there any next-gen cards for non-gaming PCs? You know, computers that are mainly used for Web surfing, email, and shopping online; or for business, finances, spreadsheets, and monitoring stock tickers?

Meanwhile, Windows Vista is making its best attempt to steamroll across the country, though the actual need for it is questionable at best. But some of us are early adopters, and we want the latest. Not all of us who fall into that category, however, want to pay an ungodly sum of money for a graphics card that will handle Window Vista’s frosty-cool Aero interface.

Extremetech.com tested 8 DX-10 cards and here is the quick specification:

3DMark06 Test

Vista Experience Index

And the conclusion:

Source: ExtremeTech.com