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RioWorks HDAMA: a dual-processor Opteron board

HWZ review: Iwill K7S2 (SiS 746FX) Motherboard

MSI MS-6590: supporting Athlon XP 3000+ and higher

Jazz J9940W Wireless 5.1-Channel Speaker System Review @ TechConnect

Another AMD processors price cut

HWZ review: Plextor PlexWriter Premium 52x32x52x

VIA Apollo K8T400M: dual-processor Opteron chipset

HWZ review: Excelstor Europa.60GB (7200RPM)

Leadtek WinFast A340 TDH on GeForce FX 5200 in our lab



RioWorks HDAMA: a dual-processor Opteron board

RioWorks announced HDAMA, a dual-processor server board (Socket 940) for 1.8GHz+ AMD Opteron. Northbridge – AMD 8111 (HyperTransport-enabled) , Southbridge – AMD 8131. Maximum memory capacity is 16Gb (Registered PC2700 DDR SDRAM) in eight 184-pin DIMM sockets.

The board supports up to 4 EIDE drives (Ultra DMA 100/66/33) and features 2 PCI-X (64-bit/100MHz), two 64-bit/66MHz and two 32-bit/33MHz slots; 8Mb ATI RageXL graphics; 2 Gigabit Ethernet controllers (Broadcom 5702).

Besides, the novelty has 4 optional Promise PDC20319 Serial ATA ports, RAID 0, 1, 10; 2 serial ports (UART 16550), VGA connector, 2 RJ-45 connectors, PS/2 mouse/keyboard ports, 2 USB1.1 ports. Form-factor — SSI (12" x 13")

Source: RioWorks

HWZ review: Iwill K7S2 (SiS 746FX) Motherboard

"The SiS 746FX platform is definitely not the star performer that the NVIDIA nForce2 is, but fortunately, the feature support of the 746FX is kept very much minimal and yet up to date. This would mean that SiS 746FX motherboards would actually be very affordable Socket-A platforms with decent performance."

Read more at HardwareZone.

MSI MS-6590: supporting Athlon XP 3000+ and higher

Micro-Star International announced its MS-6590 ATX Socket A (Socket 462) board for Athlon XP / Athlon / Duron processors supporting Athlon XP 3000+ and higher.

It features VIA KT400A (200/266/333MHz) FSB chipset, supports DDR200/266/333/400 and AGP8x. As for memory, the novelty has 3 DIMM sockets for up to 3Gb in 6 memory banks. VIA VT8235 Southbridge features dual-channel Ultra DMA 66/100/133 EIDE, int. USB2.0).

Expansion slots include AGP (4x/8x), six 32-bit PCI. Optionally the mobo can feature SATA (for up to 2 SATA drives and 1 ATA133 device), RAID 0,1 (ATA133+SATA or 2 SATA), and Bluetooth.

Audio codec — C-Media 8738MX w/SPDIF. Optional LAN — Broadcom 5702. Ports are standard: FDD, 2 serial, 1 parallel (SPP/EPP/ECP), 1 IrDA, 6 USB2.0 (4 back, 2 front).

Jazz J9940W Wireless 5.1-Channel Speaker System Review @ TechConnect

"The solid subwoofer along with the front speaker has an excellent built quality. You won´t see everyday a multimedia speaker designed after a great design, and I´m referring to the D´Appolito design. Not only have Jazz Speakers addressed the needs of those who wanted best performance of a multimedia system, they have also enhanced the speakers for an excellent quality so that regardless of whether audio material is used it is overall an impressive performer."


Read more at TechConnect.

Another AMD processors price cut

Along with 64-bit AMD Opteron announcement, AMD posted a table of updated prices for its processors:

 Old pricePrice after 22.04 (cut)/font>
Opteron
244
-
$794
242
-
$690
240
-
$283
Athlon XP
3000+
$588
$325 (-44%)
2800+
$375
$225 (-40%)
2700+
$267
$180 (-32%)
2600+
$241
$151 (-37%)
2500+
-
$124
2400+
$141
$103 (-27%)
2200+
$107
$81 (-24%)
2100+
$92
$79 (-14%)
2000+
$81
$66 (-18%)
Athlon MP
2600+
$273
$201 (-26%)
2400+
$200
$153 (-23%)
2200+
$174
$131 (-24%)
2000+
$133
$116 (-12%)
Desktop Athlon XP-M
2600+
$246
$156 (-36%)
2400+
$146
$108 (-26%)
2200+
$112
$86 (-23%)
2000+
$87
$71 (-18%)
1900+
$84
$69 (-17%)
1800+
$77
$59 (-23%)
1700+
$62
$55 (-11%)
Athlon XP-M
2500+
$184
$134 (-27%)
2400+
$151
$113 (-25%)
2200+
$117
$91 (-22%)
2000+
$92
$76 (-17%)
1900+
$84
$69 (-17%)
1800+
$77
$59 (-23%)
1700+
$62
$55 (-11%)
1600+
$57
$55 (-3%)
LV Athlon XP-M
1800+
$147
$112 (-23%)
1700+
$123
$97 (-21%)
1600+
$107
$80 (-25%)
1500+
$88
$71 (-19%)
1400+
$71
$57 (-19%)

HWZ review: Plextor PlexWriter Premium 52x32x52x

"We love this new Plextor Premium drive to bits, there´s no doubt about that. Excellent read and Digital Audio Extraction performance have always been a hallmark of Plextor, and the Premium drive continues that proud tradition in our benchmarks. On the other hand, Plextor´s drives have been known to be very fussy with the type of media used. But with the new Premium, Plextor seems to have done some significant media compatibility improvements into its firmware.Ý

Read more at HardwareZone.

VIA Apollo K8T400M: dual-processor Opteron chipset

The wide industry response to AMD´s 64-bit Opteron announcement was also supported by chipset makers. In particular, Via Technologies officially announced its new solution — VIA Apollo K8T400M (VT8385).


New chipset features two usual parts: a Northbridge supporting two Opterons, AGP 8X and HyperTransport; and VT8237 Southbridge. These are interconnected by 1.06Gbps Ultra V-Link. As you know, VT8237 supports two Serial ATA channels, up to 8 USB2.0 ports.

VIA Apollo K8T400M key specs:

  • 800MHz FSB, HyperTransport, Opteron supported
  • AGP2X/4X/8X supported
  • 6-ch. AC97 codec, VIA Vinyl Surround Sound
  • Integrated MC97 modem
  • Integrated 10/100 Ethernet MAC
  • Dual-channel Serial ATA/RAID (0, 1, 0+1, JBOD)
  • Dual-channel ATA 33/66/100/133
  • 8 USB2.0 ports, UHCI compatibility
  • Unified VIA Hyperion 4in1 supported
  • VT8385 — 578-pin BGA, VT8237 — 539-pin BGA

Pricing and shipments info is now available yet.

HWZ review: Excelstor Europa.60GB (7200RPM)

"If you´re looking for a mainstream hard disk drive component, the Excelstor Europa.60GB is quite a good choice for consideration. With performance rivaling even the Seagate Barracuda ATA V, it´s actually as good as any of the branded hard drives out there. Manufactured by Excelstor Technology, this small time manufacturer based in China is one that we should set our eyes upon for cheaper and affordable drives. However, their main focus is still on the mainstream segment and you´ll probably not find any high capacity offerings from them at this time."

Read more at HardwareZone.

Leadtek WinFast A340 TDH on GeForce FX 5200 in our lab

We are currently testing new Leadtek WinFast A340 TDH graphics card on NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200.

According to the official info, WinFast A340 series on GeForce FX 5200 / FX 5200 Ultra includes WinFast A340 Ultra TD MyVIVO, WinFast A340 T, WinFast A340 TD and WinFast A340 TDH that we obtained. Our sample has 128Mb DDR, analog, DVI-I and TV connectors.





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