Intel MIGHT drop the pricing scheme for one of its most powerful central processing units according to hkepc. If we can believe the source then part's price will plummet by almost half of what it currently costs. If true, then the chip immediately under it may also drop in price, in order to maintain their appeal on their respective target consumer bases. This will come to pass just around the same time as the upcoming Core i3-560, with a frequency of 3.33GHz, is slated to make it into stores.

The CPU whose price will drop from the current $562 to under $300 is the Core i5-950. It is a quad-core model, with eight threads and an L3 cache memory of 8MB. Furthermore, the CPU has a thermal design power (TDP) of 130W and should be able to go as low as $294 when being put up for order, around the end of August to be exact. As such, the tag of Core i7-930 is bound to drop to $284.

The report even goes as far as mentioning the exact day when the Santa Clara, California-based maker of central processors intends to set these plans into motion: August 29.

Rumors though -- this news should be taken with a big grain of salt.

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Intel's next-generation processor code-named Westmere-EX may include more cores than the company's current server chips, according to the title of a paper about the chip announced on Sunday. Intel will present a paper, called "Westmere-EX: A 20 Thread Server CPU," at the Hot Chips 22 conference , which will be held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California between August 22 and 24.

That tops the previous high of 16 threads in a CPU achieved by some Nehalem-EX CPUs with eight cores. Westmere-EX processors will succeed Nehalem-EX, which are able to run two threads simultaneously per physical core. Intel already offers chips based on the Westmere architecture for laptops, desktop and servers that can simultaneously run two threads per core. That ability to run 20 threads points to Westmere-EX CPUs possibly including up to 10 physical cores.

The company in the past has said that Westmere-EX chips would include more cores and operate at faster speeds than Nehalem-EX, though it has not provided further details.

Intel has said that Westmere-EX will be targeted at servers with four sockets and higher. The chips will be made using the 32-nanometer manufacturing process and are due for release next year.

Companies talking about the latest server chips at the conference also include IBM and Advanced Micro Devices. IBM will be talking about the next-generation "System z microprocessor," according to the advance agenda. AMD will be talking about the next-generation high-end desktop and server architecture code-named Bulldozer and the Bobcat microarchitecture for thin-and-light laptops and other low-power device [via PC-World].

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eVGA GeForce GTX 465 SC tested

eVGA will be putting a lot of GeForce GTX 465 SKUs on the market based in several gradations. We'll have a look in particular at the GeForce GTX 465 SC model, with SC short for Super Clocked. NVIDIA managed to put a product out on the market, that does not run very hot and is not at all noisy. A Fermi product that should be more affordable yet has less active shader processors at it's disposal and the memory configuration is now brought down towards 1024 MB (gDDR5/256-bit). This all means that several other shader clusters inside that GPU have been disabled, on a card that looks like the Siamese twin of the GeForce GTX 470.

Let's go check it out. You can find the review right here.

 

 

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The Cooler Master Centurion II mid-tower is headed to the EU real soon.

The chassis makes a point of providing all the necessary features while still throwing in a 140mm blue LED fan at the front, for that bit of personality that consumers have come to expect from their machines. As for the specs themselves, the all-black or all-silver steel-wrought casing boasts four exposed 5.25-inch bays, five 3.5-inch bays and an adapter that can fit two 2.5-inch or 1.8-inch drives into one 3.5-inch holder. Additionally, there is an I/O panel with USB 2.0 ports, eSATA connectivity, FireWire and, of course, audio connectors.

The Cooler Master Centurion 5 II measures 202 (W) x 440 (H) x 485 (D) mm and, though it was showcased as far back as January, has only just made its way to European stores. It can be seen in detail on the company's official website and is listed by online retailers with a price of 59.9 Euro.

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A little bit of a prank, still entertaining. Mass physics demonstration I rendered in the UDK, simulating 25,000 oil barrels stacked around a pillar 15,000 feet high, and then group by group falling to the ground.


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eVGA GeForce GTX 465 SC tested. eVGA will be putting a lot of GeForce GTX 465 SKUs on the market based in several gradations. We'll have a look in particular at the GeForce GTX 465 SC model, with SC short for Super Clocked.

We now offer a 1.4GB Sniper: Ghost Warrior Demo. The game promises to be the most realistic sniper experience ever and runs off the Chrome 4 engine which you may know from Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood

We now offer the 1.4GB Sniper: Ghost Warrior Demo available for download. The game promises to be the most realistic sniper experience ever and runs off the Chrome 4 engine which you may know from Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood

Based on the covert, shadowy world of the military sniper, Sniper: Ghost Warrior throws players into the chaos of a military coup, as they aid the rebels in restoring the rightful government to the embattled country of Isla Trueno.

When the democratic government of Isla Trueno is overthrown, an aggressive and hostile military command rises to power. A highly trained special ops unit is sent in to help the rebels accomplish objectives that only a sniper can handle. In addition to intense sniper missions, players will also take part in a variety of assault scenarios where their prowess with weapons will be a huge help to the undermanned rebels.

Playable demo for the upcoming sniper game SNIPER Ghost Warrior.Game uses the Chrome Engine 4 first featured in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.If you have multiple monitors and the game hangs with a black screen, then change the shortcut to Disable desktop composition (in Compatibility).

Download the game demo here.

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Ideal for netbooks with a very small form factor OCZ released 1.8 inch Solid State Drives (SSD) to offer a storage upgrade for the thin and light market. With a smaller footprint, OCZ 1.8 inch drives still deliver the reliability and performance demanded by high-end enthusiasts.

Engineered for maximum productivity, the OCZ 1.8" Vertex 2 delivers the same performance as the 2.5 inch edition, yet accommodates a wider range of mobile applications and devices. Driven by SandForce, 1.8" Vertex 2 SSDs excel in 4KB random writes up to 50,000 IOPS and features transfer rates up to 285MB/s read and 275MB/s write. Available in 60GB, 120GB, and 240GB, it offers high capacity options for unparalleled storage space.

OCZ 1.8" Onyx SSDs deliver the benefits of solid state storage at an aggressive price point for mainstream consumers looking to increase the performance and lifespan of their existing platforms. In 32GB and 64GB capacities, the Onyx makes use of a quality Indilinx controller to deliver speeds up to 145MB/s, 64MB of cache, and only one watt of power consumption even during intensive computing.

Both OCZ's 1.8" SSDs feature a durable yet lightweight alloy housing and no moving parts, making the drives more rugged and power efficient than traditional spinning hard drive discs. Available in a range of capacities to suit various needs, OCZ 1.8" SSDs are built with SATA 3Gb/s to easily integrate into today's mobile platforms and feature TRIM support for Windows 7 systems.

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The always budget minded Acer released another two monitors. The H4 family of displays deliver good response times, image quality and easy configurability. At present, the series is composed of only two members, namely the H234H and the H244H. From their names alone, one may guess their screen sizes. The H234H is 23-inch wide, whereas its sibling, predictably, measures 24 inches in diagonal. Besides this, the only other difference between the two is in their pricing: the former costs 240 Euro, whereas the latter has a tag of 270 Euro.

For those interested in performance numbers and the overall design, both H4 displays are widescreen LCDs with a native resolution of Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels. In addition, they come with a response time of 2ms and DVI and HDMI inputs. As for the panel itself, the brightness is of 300 cd/m2 and the dynamic contrast ratio is of 80,000:1.

For user convenience, Acer has implemented touch controls by means of which the monitor's image settings (color, shape, size, etc.) can be adjusted to suit each buyer's individual needs. The H4 monitors will start shipping by the end of the month.

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Expreview somehow managed to get a hold of a photo allegedly first published on a Chinese hardware enthusiasts forum known for leaking confidential data and pictures. What can immediately be seen from the photo is the aluminum heatspreader and the unusual, rectangular shape of the GPU (the GF100, as a comparison, is square). Unfortunately, the inscriptions on the chip are blurred out for the most part, leaving only the GF104-30x denomination and the A1 revision markings.

As it stands, it is impossible to determine when and where the picture was taken, though some assumptions can still be made based on it. Previous leaks and rumors suggested the possibility of the upcoming chip having a 192-bit memory bus and 336 stream processors, or a 256-bit interface and 384 stream processors. In the picture, there appear to be six or seven memory chips around the graphics processor itself, which, X-Bit Labs explains, may suggest that the memory bus is, in fact, of 224 bits, whereas the amount of stream processors is 360.

Granted, for this to be true, every graphics processing cluster (GPC) would need to have 24 stream processors and not 32 like the GF100. NVIDIA, of course, did not comment on unannounced products in any way, but considering that the launch date is supposedly slated for July 12, it shouldn't be long until official information starts to emerge.

It's not much to look at, but if it is a proper photo then the die-size is fairly small [via softpedia]

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Solomods is one of the first to mod Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console, funny stuff -- go check the video:


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