Realtek released build 2.27 of their audio drivers.

The latest download of Realtek's HD audio driver version available for Windows XP and Vista, it runs under Windows 7 too.

The HD audio driver version for Realtek chips is available for download on our server. This download offers both the Windows XP and Vista binaries, the files contain drivers for the 32 Bit and 64 Bit versions. All Realtek HD audio chips, which are common on many motherboards and in notebooks, are supported.

Download: click here

For crying out loud .. that's just amazing. If you are looking for a tiny USB drive, that can store a lot of data, then check out the 16GB Buffalo Thumbkey Flash Drives. They won't be cheap though, as they are available to pre-order for $136.29 each, but man .. that is amazing isn't it ?

Heck I'd probably loose it in a flash <- great pun there :)

Routing network cables throughout various buildings isn't the most fun. And while wireless it's good .. for massive file transportation it's just not fast enough for me. I

It seems Zotac is jumping the gun on a 1792MB version of their GTX 275 as well. As we recently shown you in this review, the additional framebuffer (graphics memory) is a waste of money you guys. Sorry, but it's the stone cold truth.

ZOTAC International, a leading manufacturer of graphics cards and motherboards, today unleashes the latest addition to it

The irony, Blu-ray might have won a very dirty battle against HD DVD last year but a new survey by Harris Interactive suggests the war is still far from over. The percentage of American adults with a HDTV is up from 35 in May 2008 to 47 percent today, but the amount of Americans that own a Blu-ray player is only 7 percent, up from 4 percent a year ago. By comparison, 11 percent of Americans own a machine that plays the now-defunct HD DVD format.

The future for Blu-ray doesn't look to bright, as only 7 percent of non-Blu-ray owners considers to buy a Blu-ray disc player within the next year, down from 9 percent in May 2008.  So why has Blu-ray failed to excite Americans so far? Milton Ellis, VP and senior consultant for Harris Interactive, believes Blu-ray adoption is being hampered by competition from alternative technologies, such as cable and satellite TV and the Internet, all of which offer HD content.

"Consumers today can easily watch high-definition TV channels or use the Internet or video-on-demand to access high-definition movies," Ellis said in a statement. "In the near future, access to high-definition movies may be a download or streaming delivery of one's favorite movies to a home media server that eliminates the need for a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray disc."

We would like to tell you about a new Command & Conquer game. Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to the 15-year Tiberium saga with innovative RPG-like player progression, persistent in both single player and Multiplayer modes, co-op play, and new stylized, live-action cinematics.

Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to the 15-year Tiberium saga with innovative RPG-like player progression, persistent in both single player and Multiplayer modes, co-op play, and new stylized, live-action cinematics. How would you rate the appeal of the following statement? 'Experience the epic conclusion to the Tiberium Saga.'

Which of the following features would you like to see in a future version of Command & Conquer?
- Introducing the first mobile base in RTS games: The Crawler. Focus on the action as the Crawler becomes your all-in-one base, which can be deployed and redeployed anywhere on the battlefield for even more strategic options
- Play with all new, bigger and badder, units from GDI and Nod, including the Crawler, the first ever mobile base in RTS games
- Play in epic 5 vs 5 online multiplayer with all new objective-based game modes
- Play the campaign on your own or tackle it with a friend, as co-operative campaigns return
- Play in the first ever class-based C&C game - a new challenge for C&C and RTS players to master
- Dive into an all-new story written by a new scriptwriting team and told through trademark C&C cinematics taken to the next level with grittier, stylized FMVs in the vein of Minority Report.
- Play in the first RTS game with MMORPG like player progression in which you are rewarded every time you play. Every unit you kill in single player, multiplayer, or skirmish gives you experience points that allows you to level up your abilities and unlock new units, powers, and upgrades to your arsenal.

Which do you consider the most unique features? When it comes to expansion packs and paid content, do you prefer buying via direct download or purchasing the boxed expansion/content at the store? Have you ever purchased downloadable content for a game after its release (aka premium DLC)?

Max Payne 3. Set 12 years after the events of Remedy's Max Payne 2 and packing a cover system that is 'not the focus of the game,' the anticipated sequel hits PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this winter.

 Max Payne 3, our titular anti-hero is twelve years senior and has long quit the NYPD. Not to mention, he looks a heck of a lot different. Sure New York was pretty rough, but Max now finds himself in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one of the most densely populated, dangerous and crime-ridden areas in the world. While taking odd jobs protecting Sao Paulo

OCZ announced the Sabre OLED multimedia keyboard for advanced gaming and customization complete with intelligent management software. The Sabre

Guys and gals ! This is the last reminder for the final 'Decade of Guru3D' contest we have running. The Photo contest is still open, and we we could always use some more entries. Don't forget that we have some awesome (read ridiculous nice) prizes to give away in this contest:

• GeForce GTX 285 personally signed by Jen-Sun Huang, the man himself, the CEO of NVIDIA!
• Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1 sound card
• OCZ Blade 2000MHz 7-8-7 Triple Channel 6GB
• OCZ Vendetta 2 including Core i7 brackets
• OCZ Illuminati Keyboard
• OCZ Behemoth Mouse
• OCZ Behemoth Mousepad
• BFG EX1200 Power Supply
• ECS X48T-A
• BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC2
• Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1 sound card
• PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 power supply
• Corsair TX650W PSU
• HIS Radeon HS 4870 IceQ 4+ TURBO
• Zalman NC1500 notebook cooler
• Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1 sound card
• ECS N9600GT-512MX-F
• Corsair TX650W PSU
• HIS Radeon HD 4670 iSilence 4 1GB

You have until Friday the 26th to submit your entry. Please find all information on this page.

And here are a few examples of a submitted photos.

With this kit finally available in Europe, we figured it was time for a review. In this article we will test and review the NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision stereo kit. NVIDIA teamed up with Samsung to optionally bundle 120 Hz LCD monitors with their all new 3D stereo shutter glasses technology. NVIDIA on their end got driver support up and going to a state where it's really good.

Next to that, they redesigned the approach to the overall gaming experience.

A set of shutter glasses that is wireless and rechargeable, games that are supported in the new drivers will automatically kick in 3D mode and next to that, NVIDIA really wanted a cool looking kit.

You can check out the full Guru3D review right here.

OCZ has quietly extended the warranty of its Vertex and Summit solid state disks from two to three years. Two year warranty is for a storage unit very standard. We've been requesting this in our reviews a lot, in fact we really would like to see a 5 year warranty on the more expensive models. But every little step is one .. and three years is fairly nice for a new technology like this.

Anyway, we'll have the Summit review up and running soon.

Wzor is claiming that the final sign off is set for July 13th. According to a translation, this is the final roadmap for Windows 7:

FINAL ROADMAP FOR WINDOWS 7 [CLIENT-SERVER]:
6/1 - 6/19 BUILDING RTM ESCROW - already assembled RTM ESCROW.
6/22 - 7/10 RTM RECALL - assembly and search for candidates to the final RTM release.
7/10 WINDOWS 7 RTM FINAL BUILD TARGET - build day "gold code".
7/13 WINDOWS 7 RTM SIGN-OFF - the date of signing the final RTM release!

We previously reported that Windows 7 could RTM at the end of this month, but if Wzor is correct. and that's a big if, it looks like we may now have a final RTM date. Wzor is stating that the latest RTM branch build is 6.1.7263.0.win7_rtm.090619-1900, and the latest build in the winmain branch is 6.1.7233.0.winmain.090614-1655, and that the next winmain assembly will be the final RTM build.

We're still waiting on pricing information for Windows 7, and the final release date is still set for October 22 [via neowin].

It's time for an overview of the most popular games based of the Direct drive and Steam. The NPD Group will no longer release its weekly charts of the ten best-selling PC games at United States retailers to the media.

Direct2Drive's Top Ten (6/14 - 6/20)
1. The Sims 3 - Electronic Arts
2. The Sims 3 (Mac) - Electronic Arts
3. Ghostbusters: The Video Game - Terminal Reality
4. Prototype - Radical
5. Civilization 4: Complete Edition - Firaxis
6. Fallout 3 - Bethesda
7. Aion: The Tower of Eternity (Pre-Order) - NCsoft
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward
9. Mass Effect - BioWare / Demiurge
10. Call of Duty: World at War - Treyarch

Steam Top Ten (By Revenue) (6/14 - 6/20)
1. Prototype - Radical
2. Empire: Total War - Creative Assembly
3. Left 4 Dead - Valve
4. Ghostbusters: The Video Game - Terminal Reality
5. The Elder Scrolls Game of the Year Pack Deluxe - Bethesda
6. Counter-Strike: Source - Valve
7. Team Fortress 2 - Valve
8. Killing Floor - Tripwire
9. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe - Bethesda
10. The Orange Box - Valve

Interesting, Akiba PC Hotline has spotted a new Caviar Black hard drive from Western Digital, this new model offers 2TB of storage capacity and has it's cache doubled up to 64MB which would really help with overall write performance.

This new drive should be available around the world within the next couple of weeks. For now, here's a photo.

QNAP Systems introduces the SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS, the world's smallest 8-bay, Intel Atom network attached storage solution supporting eight 2.5-inch hard drives or solid state disks (SSD).

Targeted at business users who require a storage solution of high performance, stability, scalability, low noise and low power consumption, the SS-839 Pro adopts low power Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU, disk on module (DOM) architecture, and 2GB DDRII memory. The total storage capacity of the NAS is up to 4TB. It also features 2 eSATA and 5 USB ports for storage expansion and external storage backup. With ultra silent and excellent energy-saving design, the power consumption of the NAS with 8 hard drives installed is about 34W, which is almost 60% less than general 8-bay, 3.5-inch NAS. Moreover, the SS-839 Pro is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX operating systems. It offers abundant software features such as built-in iSCSI application (up to 8 iSCSI targets) with Thin Provisioning, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Online RAID Level Migration, AES 256-bit volume-based encryption, Wake on LAN, automatic policy-based IP blocking, network share status report, instant SMS and email alert, BT download, Touch-N-Go RAID configuration by the LCD panel, scheduled power on and power off (max 15 schedules), 2 Giga LAN ports, 4 IP cameras for network surveillance, etc.

The SS-839 Pro is a powerful server of diversified features, e.g. network server, FTP server, web server with built-in phpMyAdmin, Joomla, MySQL/ SQLite, editable php.ini, printer server (up to 3 printers), etc. The exclusive QPKG software expansion feature enables the users to add more software applications to the NAS server such as setting up their own mail server by XDove or web page or online communication system with the customers by WordPress. Moreover, the users can make use of the Surveillance Station (network surveillance) with maximum four IP-based cameras for office security monitoring.

If you have not done so, check out our TS-439 Pro Turbo NAS review, we enjoy these units.

WSell, we of course knew this for a while already, but Microsoft have confirmed that their upcoming Zune HD touchscreen PMP will use NVIDIA

PowerColor has introduced two green (environmental) graphics cards; the Radeon HD 4650 SCS3 and Radeon HD 4350 SCS. Both graphics cards are passively cooled, with 600MHz cores and 512MB DDR2 memory at 800MHz on both cards.

If at all you like to go for one of these, please .. the HD 4650 features 320 Stream processors and a 128-bit memory interface, while the low-profile HD 4350 only features 80 Stream processors and a 64-bit memory interface. So just go for the 4650.

These cards can already be found in European shops; the HD 4650 SCS3 is available at

Auzentech started shipping their X-Fi Titanium I/O Drive from Creative Labs. This product is compatible with the Auzentech X-Fi Forte, Auzentech HomeTheater HD and the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series.
According to the Auzentech Website, the X-Fi Titanium I/O Drive is "the ideal way to harness the power of connectivity for select Auzentech PCI Express X-Fi Sound Cards. With the ability to go straight to gaming mode with the push of a button, Headset Connectivity, volume controls and the ability to record your own music, the I/O drive expands your system with a wealth of options."

"We received many requests for the X-Fi Titanium I/O Drive after releasing the X-Fi Forte Sound Card earlier this year," said Auzentech President Stephane Bae. "It greatly expands the connectivity of compatible PCI Express

PassMark BurnInTest is a software tool that allows all the major sub-systems of a computer to be simultaneously tested for reliability and stability.

Tests CPU, hard drives, CD-ROMs, CD burners, DVDs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, RAM, network connections, printers, and video playback. Test specialized hardware with BurnInTest 'plug-in' tests.

• Correction to the reporting of the Windows 7 operating system.
• Changes to the CPU measurement algorithm to better raise Core i7 and some newer Xeon CPUs to a higher power state before taking the measurement.
• Changes to the EXECUTEWAIT script command to wait indefinitely (rather than up to 20 minutes).
• The user can now specify Plugin test errors 184 and 187 can be ignored, if they deem these errors are not significant for their Plugin.
• Corrections to the data saved in the clipboard.
• New build of Rebooter included in package, V1.3.1003.
• Increased trace 2 logging for the CPU and 2D video memory tests.

Download - click here

Taiwan-based optical disc drive (ODD) makers, in response to the offer of a Blu-ray Disc (BD) player model by US department store Sears for US$99.99, expect production costs of BD players to gradually drop to US$50 in 2010, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

The BD player model being offered by Sears for online purchase is a refurbished Magnavox RNB500MG9.

Current production costs of a BD player are about US$100, with pick-up heads and chipsets accounting for 50% and 25% respectively, the sources noted. With more and more makers of the two key components and increasing yield rates, production costs are expected to keep decreasing to a level of US$50 in 2010, the sources said [via digitimes].

Earlier this year, we already reported that the six-core Opteron processor, code-named Istanbul, is a fairly straightforward upgrade over current 'Shanghai' Opterons: a 45nm processor with 6MB of L3 cache that fits into a Socket F-style motherboards, only with six cores rather than four. As a result, the upcoming Istanbul-based Opterons will serve as drop-in upgrades for existing Socket F systems. The chips will take advantage of the same 2P, 4P, and 8P infrastructure as today's Opterons, with HyperTransport and two channels of DDR2 memory per socket.

Exactly four months later, the Opteron 2427, 2431 and 2435 (running at 2,2, 2,4 and 2,6 GHz, respectively) started appearing on Japanese store shelves, according to Akiba PC Hotline, now. The suggested retail price is $455, $689 and $989.

Several other new versions are supposed to follow soon. As always, we'll keep you updated here at Guru3D, of course.